To Where the Demons Follow
by PurpleMoon12
Summary: Chloe Saunders has moved to a new arts school where her father promised her she'd graduate. Will she get through high school easily? Or will old demons come back to haunt her? (AU/AH)
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all, I've been working on this story for well over a year now. I've got quite a bit of it finished, so I'd love to see what you guys think about this. I wasn't going to publish it yet, but I'm just putting my feelers out there to see who'd enjoy!**

Loud buzzing interrupted what was once a peaceful sleep. I rolled across the bed and reached for my phone to silence the alarm before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. A heavy sigh escaped me once I realised what day it was.

We were back in Buffalo and it was my first day at A.R. Gurney high. While I was excited to finally be at an arts school, I was dreading going through the process for what seemed to be the hundredth time. It was like a ritual. Find the office, introduce myself, grab my schedule and spend the rest of my day feeling lost and struggling to make it to class on time because I couldn't read a map, try to make friends, try harder to not embarrass myself. Dad promised that this was the last time, that I'd graduate here, but I wasn't holding my breath.

I stretched out before finally throwing the blankets off of me. The chilly air immediately hit and I pulled the covers back up to my chin so I could enjoy a few more minutes of warmth before having to face my new reality.

Knuckles rapped on my bedroom door. "Chloe, we're leaving in twenty minutes." Dad called. He'd decided that he'd stick around long enough to drive me to school on my first day. I appreciated the gesture, but I knew that he was just itching to get back to work.

For twelve years I spent my life packing and unpacking moving boxes as dad move us around from city to city. It wasn't his fault – we just went where ever his job decided to take us. Ever since mom died he was thrown into a deep depression and his way of coping was to work. He wasn't a bad father by any means, but he valued his companies, more so after we lost her.

After the tragedy I didn't see much of him. I had a rotation of nannies and depending on where we were, aunt Lauren would take care of me.

It had been twelve years since mom passed, and dad had decided to move back to our hometown, where I was born. The decision for him wasn't easy. There were a lot of different things that contributed to this move, mostly my desperate need for normalcy in life. Dad knew that I wasn't coping well with constantly being moved all around the globe but he was never around enough to see what exactly it was doing to me.

I finally worked up the courage and allowed my toes to touch the cold wooden floor. It was only the beginning of winter and I was already dreading it. My joints were stiff as I arched my back and stretched my legs out simultaneously. An aching pain shot through my hip and I hissed.

Since dad was away for ten months of the year, he gave me the master bedroom with the attached bathroom. I splashed my face with cold water and inspected myself in the mirror. Anybody would think I was a high school freshman. Standing at five feet tall with minimal curves to help me out, I looked like I hadn't even hit puberty yet. I wasn't ugly by any stretch of the word, but I looked young. My strawberry blonde hair was thin and wispy, making it almost impossible to manage, and my baby blue eyes paired with my button nose that was scattered with freckles didn't do me any favours either.

'Cute' was the word mostly used to describe me. Mostly from elderly people who thought I was just so adorable for picking up their dropped change and handing it back to them at the checkout or offering to carry their bags to their cars.

The worst though, was my last crush, Jacob Vosk.

Two schools ago, I was living in New Zealand where I'd made a name for myself as an English whiz. To put a long story short, I tutored Jacob for half a semester before working up enough courage to ask him out on a date. My inexperience brain had me believing that he was into me, but nope. He called me cute and eventually it came out that he was just using me for my English notes.

After yanking a brush through my hair and brushing my teeth, I pulled out my favourite pair of high waisted black jeans from my dresser and tugged them over my hips.

'Maybe my curves are coming in after all.' I thought to myself as I did an awkward dance around my bedroom, trying to get my jeans up. Once I was satisfied, I threw a white t-shirt over my head along with a grey hoodie.

I headed downstairs to find my dad in the kitchen reading the newspaper. "I made bacon and waffles, your favourite." He gestured with the newspaper towards a plate sitting on the kitchen bench. My mouth watered but my stomach was twisted with nerves. "Not dressing to impress today?" He asked after taking in my appearance.

I rolled my eyes. "Been there, done that." I muttered before taking a seat across from my father.

What was I nervous about though? I'd done this whole first day thing so many times by now that I'd lost count. The only thing different this time was that it was an arts school.

I picked at my plate as dad finished up his paper and began to read his emails and I couldn't help but feel a slight hint of annoyance. Even at breakfast, he was working. Student teacher night? Working. My thirteenth birthday? Working. My first high school play that I wrote and directed? He showed up, but his mind was on, you guessed it – work.

"Ready, kiddo?" He asked as he placed his phone into the breast pocket of his jacket.

I silently nodded my head and shrugged my backpack over my shoulder before slipping on a pair of black canvas shoes and headed out the front door, closely followed by dad.

The car ride was short which made me wonder why dad insisted on driving me. We stopped outside of a two story, orange brick building with a white roof. Green grass and garden beds surrounded the school, making it look welcoming instead of... well, a school. A large, brightly coloured mural was painted on the side of the building, depicting all different forms of art. This was nothing like any of the other schools I had been to, the students here were buzzing and full of life.

A sea of students was pouring through the doors, eager to get to their lockers and after a short farewell to my father, I joined them. The halls were equally as colourful as the outside of the school. Photographs, paintings and drawings decorated walls and lockers and I couldn't help but gaze around in awe. If I wasn't so busy being impressed, I would have had a headache from all the bright colours.

After another glance around, I realised that there were no signs to indicate where the office was.

A girl with copper skin and curly, dark hair walked past me and I tried to get her attention.

"E-excuse me-" aaaand she was gone. Probably didn't hear me.

I looked around, fully aware of how clueless I probably looked, and began down the corridor to my right.

"Office is the other way." A voice giggled to my left. "You look so lost."

I spun around to face a tall girl with the longest, blondest hair I had ever seen. Her smile was warm and welcoming enough that I felt a little more at ease. She wore blue jeans and a white top with a multicoloured scarf wrapped around her neck.

"Liz, we gotta go. Redwin is going to murder me if I'm late for another one of her classes." Another girl appeared from over her shoulder. Her black hair was spiked up and her piercing brown eyes were set in a frown as she shifted her backpack over her left shoulder. She looked like the scary goth kid you expected to see at an art school. Her black, ripped skinny jeans and leather jacket told me that I really should not mess with this girl.

"I'll catch up with you, Tori. I have to show..." She looked at me, studying my face.

"Chloe."

"Chloe! I knew you looked like a Chloe. I have to show Chloe where the office is." She grinned at me as she grabbed my wrist and tugged me in the opposite direction of where I was headed. "I'll catch up with you later!"

The goth looking girl rolled her eyes and disappeared into a sea of students.

"Don't worry about Tori, she's a grumpy guts." The blonde girl – Liz – giggled. "New here, huh? I was the new kid last year. Kinda scary isn't it?"

"I've been to too many different schools to be scared at this point." I muttered.

"Ah you're a pro, I see!" She exclaimed gleefully as she led me through the sea of students. Moments later we were standing in front of the office door.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Chloe. I hope you're in at least one of my classes!" She chirped before skipping away into the crowd.

What a strange human.

I pushed open the door of the office where a woman with frizzy red hair sat behind a desk, clicking away at her keyboard with her perfectly manicured fingernails. She stopped and gave me a warm smile in greeting.

"Chloe Saunders, right? We're so excited to welcome you to A.R. Gurney!" She said as she shuffled through a stack of papers before holding up a paperclipped bunch in her hand, as if it were a prize. She slid it across the desk towards me. "Here's your schedule, a map of the school, and a list of elective extracurricular activities if you're interested. We received your chosen classes from your previous school and unfortunately home economics is full so we've had to put you in physical education. I hope that won't be too much of a problem?" She looked at up me expectantly.

"N-no, not at all." I wanted to retch. Physical education was my least favourite subject. I had the coordination of a scallop and I was so unfit that I was out of breath after walking up a flight of stairs. A gym was the last place I wanted to be.

"Excellent. Your first class is math with Mr. Torres. I'll go ahead and mark it for you on your map." She highlighted a section on the piece of paper and thrust it towards me when she was done.

"Welcome to A.R. Gurney!" She grinned.

 **That's chapter one done. Let me know if you'd be interested to read more, I've got plenty of this story already written!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! I'm back with chapter 2. It's a little cringy to read since I began writing this story a good 2.5 years ago and my writing has drastically changed since, but I figure it's good to put it out there anyway. The story is turning out to be a lot longer than I though, I'm currently sitting on 50,000 words and I'm not even halfway through it feels, so would you guys like to see some longer chapters? Let me know!**

 **In this story Chloe is a bit OOC, a bit more confident than how she came across in the books, but she does have her moments here and there. Her backstory will make you see why in later chapters, but I didn't want to give it away too quick ;)**

 **In the story, Chloe and Liz are 16, Simon, Derek and Tori are 17. Just to clear it up! I also changed the title of this a few days after I published it, from Where the Demons Are, and now it's titled To Where the Demons Follow. I felt like it just had a cooler ring to it /shrug.**

* * *

I pulled out the crinkled sheet of paper from my pocket and inspected it carefully. It had only been in my possession for two days and it already looked like it had been used as a napkin, survived a war, gone through a cycle of washing and had an elephant trample over it. That would teach me for not looking after my things. I squinted at the map of the school, turning it this way and that, trying to figure out exactly how to get to math - shudder.

It was my third day at A.R. Gurney high, and hopefully the last time I would have to settle into a school for the remaining years of my high school life. Dad promised that it would be our last move, but he'd made that promise before so I didn't hold too much value to it. I was hoping that if I proved myself at an arts school, he'd see how good it was for me, for my recovery, and let me stay.

My eyes were torn away from the paper when a loud thud echoed through the halls, followed by bouts of laughter and fits of giggles. A tall boy stood in front of an open locker as he glared daggers into the back of another boy who wore the school's varsity jacket as he walked over to a crowd of students. Books were scattered at the first boy's feet, a particularly heavy one had slid towards me and I picked it up. It was a college level physics textbook with what seemed like hundreds of bright yellow post-it notes poking out the top. I smiled as I approached the boy who had just lost his books, only to be met with a stone cold expression as he picked his remaining books off the floor and stacked them in a neat pile in front of his locker.

"Here." I held out the textbook and he took it without so much as a thank you. He was too busy burning holes into the other boy's back with his eyes as he gathered. I followed his gaze to the jock as he thumped his friend on the back in a greeting. "At least shit stains like him make it clear that they're shit stains. That way you know to avoid them."

The boy rose to his feet, towering over me, at least six foot seven. I could have easily mistaken him for a grown man if it weren't for the fact that I recognised him as a fellow student in my English class. The presence of angry red acne dotted on his cheeks didn't help his case either.

"Are we done here?" He grunted as he momentarily swept his greasy black hair out of his face. A flash of vibrant green in his eyes caught my own but disappeared once the curtain of hair fell back before I could react. I began to stammer a response but he didn't wait around to hear it. Instead he slammed his locker with what I believed to be more force than necessary and I was left to stare at him slack-jawed as he sauntered away.

Way to be a jerk to someone who just helped you.

* * *

In a regular school, English would have been my favourite subject. In an arts school, however, it came in at a close second to drama.

My only issue with English was the auburn haired, blue eyed asshole that sat next to me. Don't get me wrong, Mila Andrews was gorgeous... on the outside. But once you sat next to her and got a glimpse of her personality - or lack thereof - you'd realise that she was just like every other spoiled bitch who thought she could treat others however she wanted because daddy was rich and poured tonnes of money into the school so that she could live without consequences. It was nauseating.

But of course I'd never say that out loud, would I?

Listening to Mr Doyle talk was hard enough without her constant whispering or the clicking of her fingernails on her iPhone screen to distract me, and then every time she smacked her gum I wanted to smack her face. But no, my daddy didn't pour tonnes of money into the school so I could hit a bitch without consequences... not that I wanted him to. But God, did I want to smack her and send her head flying.

"You know, families usually get sick of the adopted kid eventually." She mock whispered to the tall boy in front of her - Derek, the same rude guy I helped on my third day at A.R. Gurney. The school gossip, Kari Shaw, had spewed out some stupid rumour that he was adopted, as if it was worthy of noting. For a school designed for creative kids, they sure as hell lacked creativity in the rumour department. He thankfully didn't dignify her with a response but remained hunched over his desk. His hulking figure was almost comical and I would have laughed if it weren't for that auburn-haired asshole yapping away right next to me.

When Mila realised that Derek wasn't going to humour her, she gave an awkward chuckle. "Adopted kids are always so anti-social. It's creepy. This is how school shoo-"

"Will you shut up?" I hissed at her before immediately clamping my hands over my mouth. Did I actually just say that out loud? What the hell was wrong with me? I hadn't been here long enough to commit social suicide yet.

If we were in a movie, her head would have done the full 360 degree twist as flames burned in her eyes as she roared in tongues, just like the demon child she was, but in real life she just settled for a slow turn of her head as she processed what I had just blurted out. She looked me up and down and curled her upper lip in disgust.

"Excuse me?" Her voice raised a few octaves as she squeaked her words out. Mr Doyle had excused himself from the classroom moments earlier so there was no teacher to break up the bitch fight that I assumed was about to go down. I wasn't much of a fighter, but I was sure I could get a few scratches and hair pulls in if it came down to it...

"G-get over yourself. I know you heard me." I mumbled. "You're being obnoxious."

"G-g-get o-o-over yours-s-self." She mocked in her high pitched tone. "I'm just having a joke with Damian." She gestured in front of her to Derek. The long-haired boy hadn't even bothered to turn around.

"His name's Derek."

"You don't know how anything works around here, new kid."

"I've seen enough to know that you're just like every other spoiled rich asshole from every other school I've been to. Your friends only laugh with you because they know how vindictive you can be if they don't, and teachers wouldn't dare punish you for your shitty behaviour because your daddy pours too much money into the school. I know exactly how you work."

"You have no idea what you're dealing with." She said through grit teeth.

"What are you going to do? Pass me mean notes in class? Make sure the boy I like doesn't ask me to prom? Graffiti my locker? Yeah, okay, good luck with that one." I turned away from her and focused my attention on the worksheet on the desk in front of me. Mila huffed beside me and stomped her feet under her desk, undoubtedly plotting my downfall. I didn't care, though. She could do whatever she wanted, but it wouldn't be anything I hadn't seen before.

Mr Doyle appeared minutes later, and something told me that he in fact did leave the room to avoid the shit-storm that was Mila Andrews. I couldn't blame him.

"New assignment!" He announced. "You'll be put into pairs to break down the themes and components of the classic novel of your choosing. How you'll present it is up to you. It's an arts school, so I trust you'll do something creative with it. Now, pairings..." Doyle listed off pairs and I felt my heart skip a beat when he called out Mila's name. It only resumed when he announced that she was paired with some poor, unsuspecting boy that sat at the back of class. I watched as the boy paled and glanced at her, probably plotting his escape. I pitied him, but not enough to take his place.

"Derek Souza, you're with Chloe Saunders." He glanced over at us and I gave him an appreciative nod before diverting my attention to Derek, who didn't bother to look back at me. Something deep down inside me wanted to jump for joy. This could be a chance to figure out the oh-so mysterious, elusive, Derek Souza. The boy who was the centre of so many rumours in this school.

During my short amount of time at A.R. Gurney, I had heard caught little snippets of rumours here and there. They ranged from Derek being adopted, to having broken a kid's back at his last school in a fight, to him actually killing somebody with his bare hands. They didn't stop there, though. They only got even crazier and harder to believe. Like the rumour that he bit a baby birds head straight off its body and ate it – gross and totally unbelievable.

The bell sounded, signalling the end of class and the beginning of lunch. Yes!

"Chloe Saunders, do you have a minute?" Mr Doyle asked while students poured out from the classroom. Ugh, I just wanted to eat.

I stepped up to his desk where he was jotting down notes on an assignment. When he was satisfied that all of the students had left, he peered over his glasses. He was a jolly looking man in his sixties if I had to guess. His head was devoid of hair and his long beard was greying. I could have mistaken him for Santa if he dressed up in a red suit.

"How are you liking A.R. Gurney so far, Miss Saunders?"

"It's great! I've always wanted to go to an arts school." I beamed with fake enthusiasm. It really was a great school, but it was hard to show my appreciation for it when I had the sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to be there for long. Dad was bound to uproot our lives and move across the country, yet again, when a better business deal popped up.

That was always how it worked. Every time I started getting comfortable at a new school, dad found a reason to take me out of it. Not that he was actively trying to ruin my life, but my teenage years weren't normal by any stretch of the imagination. I had lived in so many beautiful cities but the only thing I ever craved was normalcy. All I wanted was to wake up in the morning without wondering if I'd be clearing out my locker later on that day.

"Good. Good." He mumbled. "Except I couldn't help but... overhear your run in with Miss Andrews."

Whelp, I'd been caught.

"Yes, I understand that a classroom is no place for a conversation like that. I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"No, it's not that." He chuckled but lowered his voice. "I suppose I just wanted to warn you. For a student, Miss Andrews is... powerful. She has a lot of minions, followers, whatever you wish to call them. I'm not supposed to say anything about the matter, but she's known for being relentless. She set her sights on one girl last year and..." He shook his head in a way that told me it was a sensitive matter. "Doesn't matter. Mila Andrews is a bully."

I bit back a scoff. "I appreciate your concern, Mr Doyle. But I'm not too worried about girls like her. They talk big but there's only so much they can do." I shrugged. "It's just high school."

He nodded. "Very well. It's also my understanding that you moved here under some unfortunate circumstances. If you need any additional support, please don't hesitate to come and see me, or our counsellor Mrs Wade. Contrary to what most students believe, teachers aren't here to make your life a living hell. We just want to help."

"Thanks, Mr Doyle." I turned to head out the door and my shoulder collided with something. I craned my neck up, and up. Leaning against the door frame was none other than Derek Souza. He had that deer caught in the headlights look on his face, as if he'd just been caught.

"Eaves dropping?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

He straightened up. "I wasn't-"

"Hey, doesn't bother me." I held my hands up in mock surrender. "Tomorrow after school. Library. We'll discuss our project."

I bounced away before he could even squeak reply.

* * *

 **All done, until next time! Leave me a review, tell me what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm back! I mentioned on my last chapter about writing longer chapters, so I can hopefully slam out this story somewhat fast. There's a lot to it, and it's going to be a long one.**

* * *

My first week at A.R. Gurney was done and dusted.

I shrugged off my jacket at the front door and hung it up on the coat rack. The homely smell of roast lamb emitted from the kitchen and I had to actively make sure I wasn't drooling all over myself. I unwrapped my scarf from around my neck and put it with my jacket before shaking off my shoes.

"Chloe?" Dad's voice called from the kitchen.

"I'm home, dad." I grinned down at my phone as I read the text Liz sent me.

"Come to the kitchen please."

The grin that was just there? Oh yeah, that was gone. I knew that tone of voice, I'd had this talk many times before.

Dad sat at the kitchen table with a stack of papers at his side as he rifled through a book. Yeah, I definitely knew what was about to come next.

"Have a seat." He gestured to the seat next to him without so much as looking up from his papers. I chewed my lip anxiously, awaiting the conversation that was about to happen.

But nothing. He said nothing, just scribbled some notes down, and it was driving me crazy. Did he not know that I knew?

"Where is it this time, dad?" I sighed.

His head snapped up from his book. Dark circles graced underneath his blue-green eyes as he studied my face. He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his thick, greying hair. He looked exhausted, but I knew he hadn't been sleeping well since the move. "Berlin. How did you-"

"We've had this conversation many times before." I stated. "We get settled down, I start a new school and get comfy, then you find something else." I sighed. "It's okay."

"I know, kiddo. You know it wasn't easy for me coming back here, to the place your mom passed." He ran his hand over his mouth. "There's so many memories in this town. I tried to stay longer, I really did, but this business deal coupled with this move... It's even harder that this time I'm leaving you all alone." He looked down at his hands and sighed. "I'll be back in three months, I promise."

"L-leaving me a-alone?"

He nodded. "You're old enough now, Chloe, you can look after yourself. Aunt Lauren is only a call away if you need and even though her and I haven't gotten along in the past, this is something that we both agree on."

I nodded silently. Dad wasn't the kind of man to show his weakness, even though his weakness was obvious. Anything that reminded him of mom was enough to send him away for business for months. Which made sense, really. I was a spitting image of her. From the baby blue eyes and the blonde hair, to our frames. It explained why he spent so much time away from home... from me.

"Okay." I simply said. "When?"

"Tomorrow morning. But you know that you have your aunt Lauren just a few blocks away and she'll be checking up on you every day and-"

I held up a hand to cut him off. "Dad, I'll be okay."

He gave me a grateful smile and closed his book. "I got so lucky with you, kiddo."

I gave him a forced smile before heading up the stairs towards my bedroom.

Two weeks.

It took him two weeks to find a reason to go away for business again.

I sighed and threw myself down onto my bed. Of course, I knew it was coming, but this soon though? Most teenagers would be stoked with their parents leaving them to fend for themselves for a month, but this was my normal. Even when I'd move with dad, I barely ever saw him. My life was a jumble of large, empty houses, nannies and microwave meals. Now it was just an empty house and microwave meals.

But I suppose it didn't have to always be an empty house.

I pressed the 'call' button next to my friend's name and held the phone up to my ear.

Ever since I started at A.R. Gurney, Liz had made it her mission to acquaint me with everyone she knew, which just so happened to be a lot of people. Liz was popular cheerleader who had maintained straight A's all through high school, and I could see why she was so popular. She was one of the nicest people I had ever met and made it her life mission to make anybody feel welcome in her friendship group.

Which really made me wonder why she was such good friends with Victoria Enright. How was I ever to describe Tori? A bitch? One of the rudest people I had ever met? The she-devil?

They all came close.

She also happened to be the sister of none other than my English partner, Derek Souza, which actually explained a lot as to where he got his attitude from. I only had to wonder what their parents were like...

"Chloe!" Liz's excited voice chimed down the phone after the third ring. "What's up?"

"My dad's going away for business tomorrow and I was thinking tomorrow night we could-"

"Party?!" Liz exclaimed.

"P-party? N-no I-"

"Chloe this would be the perfect chance for you to meet more people. I could invite the football team and-"

"I was thinking more of a girls' night." I cut her off. The blood drained from my face just from thinking of having a party. My father would kill me and only God knows what aunt Lauren would do to me if she found out.

"Oh come on, your dad's going away for business and you don't want to use up that big empty house of yours?" She pleaded.

I chewed my lip in thought. While I did trust Liz's judgement I couldn't speak for anybody else. She wanted to invite the football team for God's sake!

"A small gathering." I pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping that I wasn't making a huge mistake. "Just our small group, nobody else. And for the love of God, no football team."

"Eeeee!" Liz shrieked down the phone, making me recoil from the sound.

What kind of damage could our little group do anyway?

I dreaded to think...

Saturday morning rolled around and I helped dad pack his bags for Berlin. It was a task I was well acquainted with, from where in his suitcase he liked his toiletries to be stashed, to the way he liked his socks folded.

Weird, huh?

For the past twelve years I had followed him from country to country and this was the first time he was actually leaving me alone. Sure, I had aunt Lauren who lived a few blocks away, but she was always busy at work, and I wasn't sure if I wanted her checking up on me all the time. She was a bit overbearing.

"Here's my credit card." My dad fished the plastic card from his wallet and handed it to me. "Don't go crazy with it. You've got enough film editing software to last you a lifetime. You can buy pizza and snacks for your friends tonight but keep it minimal. Now I'm not going to go into the whole spiel but if you need anything at all-

I smiled sheepishly at him. "Dad, it's okay. I got it."

"You're such a good kid." He grinned and ruffled my hair. "Now my taxi's here, I need to get going." He said as he pickled up the handle of his suitcase and headed for the front door. "I'll message you when I get to the airport, and then again when I get to Berlin-"

I cut him off for a second time. "Stop fussing, dad. It's only a month."

He ran a hand nervously over his face and dropped the suitcase. His face was etched with worry and something told me that he was hesitating about this whole trip. "I love you Chloe, you're my baby girl. And now I'm leaving you alone for real and I just-" he stopped himself and took a deep breath. "I know you'll be okay, you're all grown up and I'm so proud of you and I don't say these things enough." Dad smiled sadly after his ramble.

"I love you too, dad." I reflected his smile and stepped towards him. We embraced in a quick hug before the horn of the taxi interrupted us and the next thing I knew, he was back to his old self, adjusting his tie and rushing out the door.

I almost preferred his stoic demeanour to the vulnerable one I had just witnessed. It made him leaving that much harder.

He waved from the window of the taxi as it sped off down the street, disappearing around the corner. I turned back to face the big, empty house that was now solely for me. It was your standard, two story suburban home. Grey bricks with white window shutters and an even darker grey roof, white steps leading up to the front porch that was unused, mostly so far due to the crappy weather, and a beautiful garden bed that was on its' way out. Shame neither myself or my father had a green thumb. Maybe I'd have to try pulling it back together, Mom would have loved that.

I trudged up the steps to the front door and stopped to stare at my watch. Seven hours before guests arrive, plenty of time to tidy the house.

But first, the dreaded math homework.

Math was by far my most hated subject. I'd walk through a waist deep pit of fire ants if it meant I never had to take another math test again. Over the course of my high school career, dad forked out money for several tutors, and none of them could help me. One of them even quit out of frustration.

I'd sit at my desk for hours on end, pulling my hair over an upcoming test and asking God why I would ever need to find the circumference of a circle when I wanted to work in the film industry. If somebody, anybody, could prove to me why that would be useful, maybe I'd care more.

I mentally wrestled with my homework for 2 hours before tidying. With 4 hours to spare, I plonked down on the couch to watch the newest season of Orange is the New Black until my guests arrived.

Eight o'clock rolled around and I was drifting off in the living room when the doorbell startled me awake. I fixed my hair on my way to the door before swinging it open to reveal Liz holding a plastic bag, spilling over with all the bad snacks in the world.

"I brought snacks. Tori, Simon and Derek will be here in ten. Amber and Brady are at a football party.

"D-Derek?"

"Well duh, he's Simon and Tori's brother."

"He's what?" I asked, clearly in shock.

"You never knew?" She chuckled as she pushed past me into my house, instantly making herself at home. "Yah, he grew up with those knuckle heads. Hard to believe, right?"

"But he looks nothing like them..."

"It'd be weird if he did," she opened up a bag of lollies and popped one in her mouth. "He's adopted."

So one of those rumours of the elusive Derek Souza was true...

"Okay pick your jaw up off the floor, we need to pick out what movie's we're gonna watch tonight."

I shook my head and joined her as she sat down on the red shag rug in my living room, sprawling out a collection of DVD's. We picked one movie for each person based on what we thought they'd enjoy. Liz liked Mean Girls, we chose the Avengers for Simon, Tori was a bit of a stab in the dark but we picked out The Bling Ring for her, Psycho for me, and Liz was lost for Derek, but I threw Inception onto the pile of movies for us to watch hoping that he'd like it.

The others showed up soon after and we spent the night watching movies, playing board games, nearly seeing Tori strangle Simon during an intense game of Monopoly, and getting to know each other. Since I started at A.R. Gurney, I stuck by Liz's side and never had the nerve to branch out and make friends independently. I'd been a loner for so long, it didn't bother me too much, but I wasn't going to say no when Liz was making the effort to properly introduce me to her friends.

Simon was a real sweetheart, very charming and charismatic. Tori was exactly who I thought she was - the devil in disguise. And Derek was... well, he was Derek. He didn't contribute too much to the night, just sat back and minded his own business.

Maybe Derek and I weren't so different after all. We were both more spectators in our little group than contributors. That was more than okay with me, but Derek was hard to read.

4am rolled around and everybody decided that we were well overdue for sleep. Liz stayed in our guest room while Simon, Tori and Derek walked a block away to their own home. I said goodnight to Liz and disappeared up the stairs, satisfied that I had gotten to know everybody a little better. Well, most of them.

Liz was the popular cheer leading type with a passion for helping others, her goal after school was to study social work to become a school counsellor. Simon was an outgoing basket baller with a love for art and comics. He had his dreams set on writing and designing his own comic series. Tori was, surprisingly, a huge nerd that knew how to hack her way through a computer and was taking college level IT courses.

But I noticed that Derek didn't make eye contact with me the whole night, or tell us about his dreams, aspirations, goals...

Derek was still a mystery, all I knew was what his siblings and Liz told me. He was apparently a genius and spent all of his time studying. Studying what? I didn't know. This only fuelled my determination to break down those walls of his.

* * *

Gym class had a distinct smell. It smelled like basketballs and body odour and whatever else mingled in the air of the basketball court. I dreaded to think.

I pushed through the girls' locker room door to find Mila and her friends parading around in their gym shorts and bras, giggling to each other as they danced to a song that played from one of their iPhones. They stopped to look at me, staring me down as if I were rude for daring to come and get ready in the change rooms. I nodded my head in acknowledgement as I ducked into one of the stalls. Hushed whispers could be heard from the girls, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I slipped out of my clothes and replaced them with the A.R. Gurney sports top and shorts before pulling my hair into a ponytail.

I stepped out of the stall and headed back for the court as I felt eight pairs of eyes follow me the whole way out.

Liz was waiting for me and sensed my discomfort. "Mila in there?" She asked and I nodded. "Just ignore her, she's just a mean girl. Right Derek?"

Derek stood with his back leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. He grunted as he pushed himself off the wall and walked away from where we stood.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "That's an understatement."

The coach gathered us around once everybody was ready and instructed us on some warm ups for basketball. We started with dribbling up and down the court, before being paired up to practice passing. Much to my dismay, I was paired up with a boy called Mike. He was nice enough, but I learned quickly by the glares and whispers that he was the love interest of Mila.

Not that I cared, she could have him, but I just wanted to pass the damn basketball and get out of gym class.

After warm ups, coach gave half the class blue tags to stick on our shirts. I was on a team with Liz, Mike, and some others who I didn't know, and Mila was on the other team with Derek. The coach blew the whistle and before I knew it there was a commotion of yelling, flailing arms, and the slapping of shoes against the floor of the court.

Apparently the opposing team didn't feel much need to defend in front of me, they knew I sucked at sports. So when one of my teammates passed me the ball, everybody was shocked and that included myself. After a brief moment of feeling stunned, I dribbled the ball a few feet and dodged around one of Mila's friends before passing the ball off to Liz. Crisis averted, or so I thought.

There was a split second where I was airborne before crashing down onto the floor, landing on my shoulder. The coaches whistle pierced my ears as a weight landed on top of me, a mess of auburn red hair whipped around my face as whoever just bodychecked me came down too. I groaned as I cradled my left shoulder. The human who landed on top of me made sure to dig their elbows into my ribcage as they scrambled back to their feet, leaving me on the floor.

I heard Liz's panicked voice as she rushed over to me, trying to help me sit up. I touched my face and my hand came away red. My nose was bloodied, my shoulder ached and my humiliation levels had me feeling as small as an ant.

"Mila, what the hell?!" I exclaimed.

"It's basketball, it's a contact sport." She stated simply, a smug grin plastered on her face.

"I don't think bodychecking someone half your size is allowed." A gruff voice said from behind her. Everybody whipped their head around to look at Derek Souza, as if they didn't expect to hear from him.

"Oh come on, it was a mistak-" Mila began, only to be interrupted by Derek.

"That was no mistake and you know it. Chloe passed the ball off three seconds before you took her down. That's not part of the game, that's you being an ass."

"Listen here, loser. That little bitch got in my way. Why do you even care? It's not like she's your friend. But you don't have any friends, do you?" Mila turned towards Derek and poked a bony finger into his chest. "Why don't you go back to your science lab or whatever it is you do and take the new loser there with you. Got it, Damien?"

"Oh my God Mila just shut up." I groaned as I stood up with the help of Liz. "Don't you ever get tired of your own voice? And his name is Derek. Do I have to spell it out for you, or would you struggle to keep up-"

"Okay folks, time out." The coach blew his whistle and I fought the urge to block my ears. "Saunders, off the court. Delaney, get her to the nurse to clean up.

I wanted to dig a hole in the ground, crawl into it, and never come out. Kids were staring, Coach Reco had a disappointed look on his face, and Mila had a smug look on hers. As if she wanted to let me know who was boss around here. I didn't want to sit there and take it. I wanted to lunge at her, tackle her to the ground and rub her face in dog shit, but something told me that would be an expellable offence.

I allowed Liz to escort me to the nurse.

"Man she really did a number on you." She sympathized as she pulled a packet of tissues from her backpack. "Here, you should clean yourself beore we get to the nurse."

Taking the tissue, I wiped away most of the blood, wincing as I bumped my nose.

"She's a real bitch." I groaned through gritted teeth. "I can't believe she's gonna get away with it."

The nurse was taken aback by my bloodied appearance, but gave me the all clear eventually. She did give me a pass to skip classes for the rest of the day on the condition I used that time as independant study in the library. I wasn't going to argue that.

I pushed through the heavy doors to the library and sought out the quietest corner. At the very back of the library, there was a small 2 person table that was closed in by shelves with only a small gap to fit through. I'd never seen it occupied before, even when the library was crammed with students.

Well, up until today.

"Mind if I sit here?" I asked the ebony haired boy as he flipped through his physics textbook.

The library was swamped with students. The only spare seat was at a tiny table in the back corner where Derek Souza sat. Over the course of two weeks at A.R. Gurney, I had learned that people feared Derek Souza as much as they did Mila Andrews, but for different reasons. Mila was a nasty piece of work who wouldn't hesitate to sink her claws into anybody who dare cross her. The boy who sat in front of me here in the library, well he was just misunderstood. So many rumors surrounded him that he couldn't escape them and I realized that he had just accepted them, despite how disgusting they were. The tall, dark and brooding vibe he gave off wasn't helping anything either.

But he did have my back earlier when Mila bodychecked me.

He pushed his hair away from his face and looked up at me with green eyes ablaze. When he didn't say anything and resumed reading, I shrugged and took the seat next to me and pulled out my own work - math. I really hoped that art school math would be easier... or at least nonexistent but alas, I flipped to chapter four.

"Hows your face?" His rumbling voice startled me from my thoughts and I jumped in my chair. Our eyes met and I could see his roll into the back of his head.

"I-it's fine."

We lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence before he broke it again moments later.

"I never asked you to stick up for me." His deep voice rumbled beside me as I scrawled down my notes.

The nerve of this ungrateful assho- "I'm aware of that." I said quickly before I could expel my frustration at his lack of gratitude. I didn't expect a parade of honor but still...

"Then why? You got some superhero complex or something? You were straight on it the week you started here when Mila arked up in English."

"Why not?"

"It sounds like you're not hearing my question." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

I mimicked his movements. "It sounds like you're incapable of a simple thank you'."

"I am capable." He slammed his textbook closed and shoved it mindlessly into his bag. "Just not to people who stick their noses in situations that aren't their business."

"Hey, you stuck up for me." I added, reminding him that it was my business.

"Yeah, big mistake."

A mixture of anger, confusion and amusement danced in my mind as I watched him get up from his seat and walk away, disappearing behind the library doors without so much of a glare over his shoulder. Derek Souza was a lot of things. Tall, slightly handsome, brooding, a jerk. But what really drove me fucking crazy about him was the mystery. It seemed kind of fucked up to make a project out of somebody, but God damn I really wanted to break down that wall of his.

The rest of the day flew past and before the sun could even go down, I was in my pyjamas and fiddling with my newest editing software. I jumped at my obnoxiously loud ringtone and saw Aunt Lauren's name flash over the screen. Ever since dad left, she had been fussing non stop. She brought over more lasagne than I could even dream of fitting in the fridge, worried that I wasn't eating properly. I endured daily phone calls until one day I snapped and told her it was too much, I was nearly eighteen. We settled on twice a week phone calls, with texting in between if she was really worrying.

"Hey aunt Lauren." I answered.

"Hi sweetheart- yes... no, I'm on break-" She sighed, clearly being distracted by her colleagues. "Sorry, I'm at work. How are you doing? I got a call from school today... Chloe, what's going on with you? You're not the kind of girl to get in fights."

"I wasn't in a fight, Aunt Lauren," I defended, slightly offended that she thought I was capable of such a thing. "There's a mean girl in my gym class, she's nothing I can't handle."

"She could've broken your nose Chloe! The only way I want to see you at the hospital is when you're coming to visit me, not as a patient." She all but shrieked before taking a deep breath. "Look honey, your dad left you to look after yourself because we both decided you were old enough. We don't want to regret this decision-"

"You won't." I interrupted. "Because there's nothing to worry about."

Aunt Lauren paused on the other end. "I really hope so, Chloe. We've put a lot of faith in you because you're a good kid. So Steve and I have been emailing back and forward, we both think it's time for you to take charge and find a job. This way you can save up for your own car and get some experience."

"S-sure, Aunt Lauren, okay."

"Okay good girl, don't stay up too late on your editing software okay? I have to get back to work now, love you sweetie."

"Love you too." I hung up the phone, baffled at what just happened. I was convinced halfway through her spiel that she was going to send me to Berlin with dad and I've have to face another new school yet again.

But a job? I wasn't complaining, just surprised. I'd had paper routes before but that was just for chump change. I was young and I had nothing to save towards. Where was I supposed to apply? Walmart? A diner? I had no sense of style so clothing stores weren't an option.

I sighed and rolled over in bed. It would have to be a mission for the weekend, because I was pooped.

* * *

 **Leave a review if you made it this far! Was it too long? Not long enough? Let me know. I've also started on another short-ish (currently at 8,000 words but almost done) story that I'm hoping to have up soon. Tell me if you're keen to read it! ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**UPDATE 20/5/19, I've just edited this chapter to fix some spelling errors (very embarrassing) that I didn't pick up before I published. I've started using a different word processing software that doesn't spellcheck by underlining my errors and I thought this was okay to publish because I completely forgot to hit the little spell check button at the top. Thank you to TheGalaxy ShadoWolf for pointing this out!**

* * *

It was a surprisingly warm day for late fall. The skies were clear and the sun beat down over the city. I settled for a clean grey t-shirt, black skinny jeans and vans, but after three hours of walking the streets of Buffalo to hand out my resume at every business with an open door, the heat was unbearable. I wanted nothing more than go to home, trade my jeans and shirt for my swimming gear and jump in the pool, but I kept moving along, wiping newly formed sweat from my brow before I entered yet another store to present my application.

I took a moment to wipe away the hair plastered to my face before I entered a cafe, having a brief chat with the girl behind the counter before leaving a copy of my resume with her. After today, there was no way I could get lost around town, I was too well acquainted by now and I was nearly done.

I entered Jay's Vinyl located next to the cafe. A rugged man in his 40's sat behind the counter, large reading glasses perched on his nose and he pushed them back to get a better look at me. His mousy brown hair was silvering and pulled back into a messy man-bun. He stood as I approached him and greeted me.

"H-hi, I'm Chloe Saunders. I'm looking for some part time work and was wondering if I could drop my resume in...?" I trailed off. He waved for me to give him a copy and took it from me, quickly studying it.

"Not a lot of experience, huh?" He questioned.

"Just a paper route when I was twelve." I shrugged. "I've never stayed in a town long enough for a job before."

"So what makes Buffalo any different?"

What was this, an interrogation? Jeesh...

"I was born here, I'm back for good." I told him confidently.

The man chewed his lip as he looked from the single piece of paper, then back to me. "Saunders. Name rings a bell. Any relation to Steve Saunders?"

"That would be my father."

"Huh... how is the old bastard doing nowadays?"

I widened my eyes in shock. "Busy as ever. How do you-"

"We went way back. Used to party in college together a lot. We lost touch, but I heard from friends that he got married and had a little girl. How's your mom going? I think I met her once before..."

"She uh, she passed away in an accident a few years ago." I fiddled with the stack of papers in my hands. "Hence dad moving us around a lot. He's promised that Buffalo is the last stop for me. At least until college."

"Ah shit, sorry kid. From what I heard, she was a top lady."

I gave a weak smile. "Yeah, she was."

"Well, I'd be happy to have you on board. I need someone for weekends and late night trade. You good with Friday through 'til Sunday?"

"Y-yeah, that's great." I blinked, almost not believing that I was simply just given a job on the spot.

"Neat. Come in straight after school on Friday and I'll show you the ropes. Oh, and I'm Jay by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Jay."

I left the vinyl store with a spring in my step and tucked the remaining copies of my resume into my backpack. A quick text to Aunt Lauren telling her of my luck earned me a little thumbs up emoji and a 'congrats'. I smiled down at my phone before dialling Liz next.

"Milkshakes at DeeDee's?" I asked before she could even say hello.

"Meet you there in 10!"

I met Liz at the diner and blurted out my good news. We spent the rest of our Saturday afternoon sipping milkshakes and sharing a large variety of breakfast food between each other.

"Hey, we need to celebrate!" She chimed.

"This is my celebration." I chuckled. "What else do you want from me?"

"Well... Tori's hosting a party tonight. Everyone will be there, you should totally come!"

"I don't think that's a good idea-"

"So I'll see you at mine at 7. Great!" She exclaimed gleefully as I tried to protest, but my objections were met with her rushing a goodbye and throwing down some money to cover her half of our food.

Liz knew what she was doing, and I couldn't help but crack a smile at her obvious attempts at getting me out of the house.

I approached the white picket fence that lined Liz's house and made my way to her front door. It opened before I could even knock and I was met by a grey haired woman.

"You must be Chloe!" She cooed, as if I were a baby. "She's in her bedroom, upstairs and it's the second on your left."

Thanking the woman, I passed her and followed the directions. Liz's door was covered in little notes and drawings, signed by her friends. I smiled as I knocked. Her muffled voice came from the other side, telling me to allow myself in.

Liz was sitting on her bed, make-up sprawled out all around her. She was in the middle of applying a thick line of eyeliner on her upper lid, concerntrating hard. I would've giggled if I knew I wouldn't distract her.

One last glance at her eyeliner in her little hand-held mirror and she looked at me.

"Is that what you wear to parties where you're from?" She grinned.

"I'm from Buffalo." I defended. "What's wrong with this?!"

I chose an emerald green t-shirt, tucked into a black waist high skater skirt and paired it with my trusty vans. Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to wear a costume?

Liz shed her fluffy pink bathrobe and I was nearly blinded by a sparkly gold dress.

"Yeah sorry, I have nothing of that calibre." I told her, gesturing to her outfit.

Liz giggled. "Feel free to raid my closet, but something tells me you'll be comfier in what you're wearing now."

Agreeing with her, I sat down on her bed as she finished off painting her face. She was super skilled in the world of make-up and a pang of envy hit me.

"Want me to do yours?" She offered as she applied a coat of gloss over her plump lips.

Shaking my head, I told her, "Every time I wear make-up I look like a clown."

"Are you sure you're doing it right?" She asked. I pursed my lips. Nobody ever really _taught_ me how to do my make-up, I just experimented with whatever I had laying around and it wasn't usually good. "Want me to put some on you? I think we're the same shade."

Hesitantly accepting, I tied my hair back and let Liz work her magic. The foundation felt cold on my skin and I flinched before laughing along with her as she transformed me.

"Okay, voila."

I took the little mirror and looked at myself, moving my face around this way and that. Liz had actually made me look my age, and that was impressive. A small rosy flush graced my cheeks with minimal foundation, so my freckles still peeked through. There was a light sweep of peachy eye shadow but the main focus was the thinly winged out eyeliner that gave my eyes more of a sultry look. Very much not my normal style, but I loved it.

We walked on over to Tori's party. Before we even reached the street we could hear the thumping music and loud teenage voices. I could already tell it was going to be a rager and every fibre of my being wanted to turn around, run home and bury myself in blankets. But alas, I linked my arm with Liz's and followed her into the house.

"Ever played beer pong before?" One of the guys from the football team and my gym class asked as I passed the table. He held out a neon orange ping-pong ball. I shook my head and he smiled. "Wanna team up?"

"Probably not a good idea." I told him. "I'm an awful shot." Part of my reasoning as well was that this guy was Mike - Mila Andrews' love interest. The same guy she body checked me over.

"So am I." He smiled. "I'm Mike." He held out his hand and I hesitantly took it in mine, shaking it firmly. Mike was at least two heads taller than me with a mop of dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes and a dazzling smile. He wore black jeans and a white t-shirt that hugged him just right. He was gorgeous, which made me wonder why he was talking to me.

"Chloe. We're in the same gym class."

He looked at me quizzically for a moment before something clicked. "That's right!" He snapped his fingers. "So, Chloe, I'll give you one shot to see if you're any good. If you get it in, you can be on my team."

"So what you're trying to tell me is that if I'm a good shot, and you're a bad shot, you'll want me to carry the weight of the team to victory."

"Do you always overthink so much?" He questioned.

"Yes," I stated defiantly as I took the ping-pong ball from his hands and tossed it across the table, landing in a red solo cup. Mike cheered with me as his opponent guzzled down the questionable liquor, making a face as he set down the cup.

No lie, I shocked myself a little. I was fully prepared to miss the cup and keep walking to find Liz, but the cheering from Mike made me want to stay and win this round. I was handed another ball and threw it over the table once again. This time, it bounced off the rim of one of the cups and rebounded onto the floor.

Looks like I got cocky too quickly.

The boy on the other end of the table took a moment to aim before sending the ball through the air and straight into one of my cups. A wave of panic hit me as I realised I was supposed to drink it. I wasn't much of a drinker, or a partier for that matter.

I glanced up at Mike and he must have sensed my panic. "I'll take this one for the team." He sighed before throwing back the drink. "Jesus Christ, who mixed these?" He gagged and set the cup down before grabbing another ping pong ball and tossing it over to the opponents side, landing nowhere near any of the cups. That didn't seem to matter to him, because he cheered anyway.

I giggled and we continued on with the game. Mike clued in early that I wasn't a big drinker and offered to take most of the drinks, with me guzzling down two. The liquid burned at my throat and it made me wonder why people drank this stuff for fun.

We won beer pong in the end and went our separate ways, him feeling like a champion and me feeling a little dizzy and in need of water. I found Liz on the couch with Simon and Tori. I plopped down with them, feeling a little buzzed and hyped up. "So where's the third sibling?" I giggled, referring to Derek.

The three shared a look and Liz grinned. "Uh oh, someone's been having a little too much fun."

"Not at all, just really happy to be here." I threw an arm around her and she giggled before slipping out of my grasp.

"Someone's gonna need some water." She bounced away in the direction of the kitchen.

"Let me guess, princess has never had a drink before." Tori rolled her eyes as she sipped her drink.

" _Princess_ has never lived in a town long enough to have a drink." I retorted as Liz came back, handing me a cup of icy cold water. I took a sip and set it aside before scrambling to my feet, only to be pulled back down by Liz.

"You can get up after I've watched you drink the whole thing." She demanded.

"Okay, _mom._ "

I made a point of chugging it right in front of her, earning a killer brain freeze in the process. Liz giggled, Simon grinned, and Tori smirked, probably jumping for joy that I was making a fool out of myself. I didn't care though. This was the one time I could let my hair down, and I'd be damned if Tori's judgment was going to dampen my mood.

I hopped up to grab some fresh air, finding my way to the back patio. The yard was abandoned, not a person in sight, and the only light to the yard was coming from the living room window. Sitting down on the outdoor sofa, I heard the screen door slide open. Thumping music escaped the house for a moment before it shut again. A dark figure approached and plopped down next to me on the couch.

"Hey stranger." I grinned and patted the couch next to me, gesturing for him to sit down.

"You feeling okay?" Simon handed me a bottle of water. He waited for me to accept it before he plopped down next to me.

"Oh my God why are you guys fretting so much? I feel great!"

"Because you're tiny and I just watched you chug two big cups of mystery liquid during a game of beer pong. You're lucky, Mike's great, but just be careful of what drinks you accept and from who."

"Okay, okay. So why should I accept this water from you then?" I giggled and sank further back into the couch. Simon rolled his eyes and sat back with me. We stared up at the sky, not that there was anything to look at. It was a cloudy night. The dull thumping of music was the only thing we could hear, otherwise it would have been dead quiet.

"So why is Tori hosting?" I asked.

He shrugged. "We both kind of host. We do it once a month when dad goes away for business."

"I haven't seen Derek around." Nobody answered me when I asked just moments ago. "Why?"

He scoffed. "Nah, he never shows his face at these things."

"Why not?"

"It disrupts his studying. We've had these parties every month for the last two and a half years, and Derek's been to none of then. He doesn't know how to have fun."

I laughed. "Yeah he definitely strikes me as the odd one out."

"He's always been a party pooper. Anyways, I want to know more about you."

"W-what about me?" I asked.

He brought his hands behind his head and leaned back in the sofa, looking up towards the sky. "I dunno. What brings you to Buffalo?"

I winced slightly, hoping that he didn't notice. "I was born here. Dad wanted to move back."

"Why did you move away?"

"You're nosy, aren't you?"

"I just want to know who'd decided to crash my party."

We exchanged a look and I sighed. "My mom died in a car accident. Dad couldn't stay in Buffalo, so I've been the new kid at over twenty different schools now.

"Chloe I'm-"

"Sorry, I know." I offered him a small smile. "Now, how about you?"

"What about me?"

"Tell me your life story." I asked as I re positioned myself on the couch with my body facing him. I bent my elbow on the back of the sofa and propped my head up ans I looked up at him. "All of it."

"Well," He stretched his hands out in front of him, cracking his knuckles. "I was an only child for a while. Then dad brought Derek home from the pound." He flashed a cheeky grin. "Then he got custody of Tori, and my life has been a nightmare ever since."

"What's that dynamic like?"

"Tori and I fight like crazy. Derek's my best buddy, but him and Tori mostly stay out of each others' way. They used to butt heads like you wouldn't believe, but Derek grew up and just began to tell Tori to fuck off whenever he saw fit. When she saw she wasn't getting a reaction out of him, she backed off and focused her attention on me. She just likes the drama."

"Ah typical sibling rivalry." I laughed.

"If we could find a mute button for Tori then life would be perfect." He chuckled. "Anyway, I just wanted to check up and see if you're okay, I'm pretty satisfied with your not-too-drunk state." He brushed his hands on his jeans and stood up. "I'll see you inside, Chloe."

I watched as he closed the sliding door behind him and disappear into the crowd, leaving me to sit back and relax. The clouds rolled over the sky and I sat, mesmerised. As the clouds grew, the night got colder and I suddenly regretted not bringing a jacket. I leapt to my feet and adjusted my skirt when a voice startled me.

"Hey there." A low drawl sounded out.

I jumped in surprise. "H-hello?" I couldn't see much, only the shadow of a silhouette that was much, much taller than me. He was leaning on the pillar of the patio just a few feet away from where I was sitting.

The owner of the voice took four steps forward towards me, bringing him out of the shadows. He was lean, wearing a wife beater and a pair of basketball shorts. His dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and his face was scruffy with stubble. I couldn't put a name to him, but I knew I'd seen him around school before. He eyed me up and down before flashing me a smile that made my stomach churn.

Or was that just the alcohol?

Uneasy. I felt uneasy and uncomfortable and I wanted to puke.

"So, new to Buffalo huh?" He stepped even closer. I crossed my arms over my chest and faced my body away from him, hoping he'd get the hint. "New to partying too I see. I saw you in there playing beer pong with the jock. You can really throw back those drinks."

I didn't say a word. Mostly out of fear, but also partially because I was planning my exit strategy. The man had since moved from the outer area of the patio, to where he was now standing in front of me, which was unfortunately blocking any possibility of escape. "You drunk, cutie?"

"I need to go back inside." I stepped to move around him, and he mimicked my movement.

"Sorry, where are my manners? Name's Liam. Liam Malloy." He held out his hand, as if he wanted me to shake it, but dropped it when I didn't make a move. "And I know you're Chloe Saunders. I've seen you 'round school."

Liam stood over me, towering. His breath smelled like cigarettes and alcohol, and something else I couldn't place.

"You party? Like, party party?" He asked and I shook my head. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a little baggy. In the dark, I couldn't see much, but I knew that I wanted nothing to do with whatever it was that he was trying to show me. "You wanna?"

It was almost as if the Gods had heard my prayers, because the sliding door opened, momentarily distracting Liam. He tore his gaze away from me to find Simon standing in the doorway, and I used the opportunity to duck around him, hurrying into the house where my friends were.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I heard Simon ask. A muffled reply came from Liam, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Simon slammed the door closed and locked it before turning to me and he cursed under his breath.

"You okay?" He asked.

I didn't trust myself to speak, so I just nodded.

"Did he touch you?"

I shook my head.

Simon let out a breath, relief evident when his shoulders dropped. "Good."

I wanted to go home. I wanted to be anywhere but here. But what if Liam was waiting outside? What if he thought I'd snitch on him for having drugs?

What if he came after me?

"Do you need somebody to take you home?" Simon interrupted my thoughts, as if he'd read my mind. I nodded, grateful.

We walked through the streets of Buffalo, Simon not trusting himself to drive after having a few ciders. He assured me that Liam wouldn't cause any trouble with him around, and I trusted him.

"Who is he?" I shivered as the cold air nipped at my exposed skin.

"He's a menace, that's what he is." He said as he shrugged off his coat before draping it over my shoulders. I muttered a thanks. "He's a creep, and he'll corner any girl he can if he finds her on her own. It's disgusting."

"D-does he go to our school?" I asked.

Simon shook his head. "Not anymore. He was supposed to graduate three years ago, but he's a dropkick. I think he got expelled for punching a freshman in the face."

"He _what_?!"

"Yeah, he's a jerk. For whatever reason he still manages to randomly turn up at events. He was forcibly removed from a junior prom a couple years back. It would've been funny if it weren't for the poor girl he tried to drag into the bathrooms."

I shivered again.

"Sorry, I don't have another coat to give you."

"No it's not that. It's just- he- ugh. He makes my skin crawl."

"You and me both."

We continued to walk in silence, and as we neared my house, Simon spoke again.

"I just want to make sure you're okay." He said as we walked up the path to my front door.

"I'm okay, Simon. Thank you." I offered a weak smile, but it didn't quite reach my eyes. I looked away from him, towards the street, when I felt a warm hand gently grasp my chin. He was easily a head taller than I was, but he leaned over me and guided my face to meet his. His hazel eyes scanned over my face, as if to check if I was _really_ okay.

"Liam won't hurt you." He told me, softly.

"But if he-"

"I won't let him."

I chewed my lip, but finally nodded. "I trust you."

Simon seemed satisfied with that and let go of my face. The absence of his warmth made me shiver for what felt like the 1000th time that night.

"You should get inside." He told me.

"Yeah." I made no effort to move, just glanced over at the dark, empty house.

Dark and empty, and big. Plenty of places for an intruder to hide if they wanted to. Easy to corner a young, unsuspecting girl that practically lives on her own.

"Will you be okay?"

I shook my head, as if it were possible to shake all those intrusive thoughts away. "Y-yeah. Just a normal Saturday night, right?" I smiled unconvincingly.

"You know, we have a guest bedroom if you want to- I mean, the party is still going on and it won't be the most peaceful sleep you'll ever have, but-"

"Let me just pack a bag." I interrupted Simon before grabbing his hand, unlocking the front door and leading him into the house. Any sleep I got, even at the party house, would be more peaceful than what I would get at home.

Simon, against my protest, slung my bag over his shoulder while I locked the door behind us. We set out, back in the direction of his house. I jumped at the sound of rustling in the bushes and bumped into his side.

"You know, if you need to hold my hand…" He held his hand out for me to take, and I gratefully accepted, not just his hand, but I clung to his whole arm as he lead us through the streets of Buffalo. Funny how clinging onto something as if your life depended on it could help with fear.

We arrived back at Simon's house and he escorted me through the living room. Liz rushed to my side to make sure I was okay, and I could have sworn I heard Tori mutter something threatening directed at Liam.

"Yo, Chloe!" A familiar voice called from behind me. "Another round?" Mike asked, holding up a little white ping pong ball.

"Not now, Mike." Simon told him harshly and Mike's smile faltered.

"Next time." I mouthed at him and gave him a weak smile. He offered a beaming grin in return.

Simon ushered me upstairs. I took some time to look around at the framed pictures on the walls. There were pictures of him, Tori and Derek fishing off a pier. Tori and Derek looked grumpy with empty buckets whereas Simon beamed a toothy grin at the camera as he held up a bucket full of fish. The next few images were of the siblings roasting marshmallows over a campfire. I noticed out of all of them that Derek didn't smile once. As Simon lead me down to the end of the hallway, the last two photos were baby pictures of him and Tori.

Simon wore a blue onesie in the photo, a small tuft of blonde hair graced his head as he beamed up at the camera, his almond eyes shining. In the photo next to his, Tori donned a yellow lacy dress. A mop of black curly hair almost covered her eyes as she also grinned up at the camera.

"No baby photos of Derek?" I asked absently as I gazed around.

"Well no, we adopted him a bit too late for baby photos."

I slapped my hands over my mouth, embarrassed. "Oh stupid, stupid, _stupid._ I knew that too."

Simon chuckled at my embarrassment. "Come on, guest room is here." He told me as he pushed open the door. "Sorry, I don't have it ready. I'd offer you Derek's room but he'd probably kill me if I found out I lent his bed out."

"He's not coming home tonight?" I asked.

"He never does when we have people over."

"Then where does he go?"

Simon shrugged. "Beats me. Anyways, sorry it's only a crappy fold-out sofa. Make yourself at home, I'll get you some blankets."

Simon disappeared out into the hallway and I took the time to take in my surroundings. The walls were a boring white, but covered in even more framed photos of the family. They all looked happy, smiling at the camera. Derek didn't smile in any of the photos, but I could tell he was content.

"So what's your story, huh?" Simon interrupted my thoughts as he plopped a large pile of blankets down on my makeshift bed. "Big empty house two weekends in a row now. What's the deal?"

I stalked back to the bed and sat down. I leaned back on one of the pillows and Simon followed suit next to me. "Dad travels a lot. This is the first time he hasn't taken me with him."

"Is it lonely?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Even when I moved around the world with him, I didn't see him much. I learned to fend for myself from an early age. And I guess living in Buffalo is better, I've got my aunt Lauren here."

"She helps you out?"

I nodded.

"Well I'm glad you've got her." Simon looked over at me. Our eyes locked for a moment before I tore my gaze away. "Anyways, you're probably sick of me. I'll leave you alone." He said as he pushed himself up off the bed. I made a grab for his wrist to stop him.

"Simon… thank you."

He shot me a dazzling smile before giving my hand a squeeze, and swiftly left the room, closing the door behind him.

I fell asleep to the thumping of music and the muffled voices of party goers. It was noisy, but it was a hell of a lot better than sleeping in a big, empty house.

* * *

 **My longest chapter yet! Hope it satisfies your desire for more writing for a little longer, at least until I can edit the next one ;)**

 **What do you guys think? Leave a review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Another day, another chapter. I'm combining shorter chapters from my documents to make long chapters here, I think it makes the story progress a little faster. Can't make you guys wait a whole month for a pissy thousand words, right? Not that a thousand words is bad, but I know when I see an update on a story I love, I want there to be LOTS of it!**

* * *

The week went by without a hitch. I didn't hear a peep from Mila, only some scary glares, but I just wrote that off as her plotting some nasty attack on me when I expected it the least. I'd cross that bridge when I came to it.

I stood at my locker after school to gather my books. My bag weighed my shoulders down and I struggled to adjust it over my shoulder, almost dropping it in the process. The plan to meet up with Derek and work on our English assignment was temporarily postponed until Wednesday next week. I pulled my hair into a messy bun as I left the building and set in the direction of the record store. It was my first shift at Jay's Vinyl and my nerves were getting the better of me. Throughout the day, my stutter had reared its ugly head and I found that my hands trembled as the end of the day neared.

I lugged my stupidly heavy bag towards the store. Sweat dripped down my forehead at the physical labour and I silently said a prayer as I stepped through the door to the shop, only to be blasted with cold air from the air conditioner.

"Hey Chloe." Jay said casually as he glanced up from his laptop. "Ready?"

I gulped and gave him a nod. He showed me to the break room, which was really just a tiny kitchen with a shelf for our bags, a 2 seater table and chairs, and a mini fridge. Shoving my bag into one of the cubes, I scrambled to follow Jay back out to the store.

The store wasn't big by any means, about the size of an average bedroom. White walls were covered in band posters and merch, and grey carpeted floors that creaked underfoot as he showed me around.

"Okay, here we go." He said and pointed around the store as he spoke. "You've got your new releases, alternative, modern rock, classic rock, jazz, classical, R&B, uhh… you know much about country music?" I shook my head. "That's fine, nobody comes in for country." He chuckled. "Every record we have is in the database. A customer asks if you've got Black Sabbath, you type it in this search bar up the top and it'll tell you if we have it. If we don't have it, take the customers name and phone number. We can order in almost any album you can think of."

He continued to show me the rest of the system, which was pretty simple to use. Jay sat back for the rest of the night and supervised me as I dealt with customers. He even let me choose the music we played over the speakers.

The night went off without a hitch and I finally found my confidence, and eventually was able to greet customers myself as they walked in. I only turned to Jay for help twice when a particularly difficult customer and I crossed paths, but regardless he commended me on how I dealt with the situation.

Nine o'clock rolled around and we closed up the store, with Jay teaching me how to count the tills.

"It'll be you and another junior tomorrow, but after that you'll be on your own in the store. You're confident enough to work without me here I think."

I thanked Jay before we parted ways, and I took a detour to the nearest Mexican restaurant to reward myself with some nachos for dinner.

I slumped down on the couch with my cheesy pile of corn chips and beans and flicked through the channels, turning my nose up in disgust at the lack of variety before finally settling on Netflix. Everybody at school raved about how awesome Riverdale was supposed to be so I binge watched that, happy with my efforts for the day.

A harsh knock on the front door startled me as I was half-way through a tub of chunky monkey ice cream. My heart stopped dead and I paused the screen, hoping that whoever was on the other side didn't hear the TV and assumed that nobody was home. Who the hell could possibly be knocking at almost midnight on a Friday?

Another bang on the door almost had me jumping out of my skin and I leapt up from the couch.

I shook my head and moved to the kitchen, away from the entrance to the house. The door to the back yard was my only escape route and God knows I was going to use it if necessary.

"Chloe Jennifer Saunders, for God's sake I know you're in there!"

Liz? What the-

I ran to the front door and flung it open before she woke up the neighbours.

"Shhh." I hushed her as I grabbed her arm and pulled her inside, slamming the door behind her. "You'll wake up the whole neighbourhood."

"Well how else was I going to get you to open the door?" She pouted.

"Oh I don't know, text me in advance that you're coming over so I know you're not an intruder?" I pinched the bridge of my nose and she giggled an apology.

"Anyways, how was it?" She asked as I lead her back to the couch.

"Great, no dramas. I'm working tomorrow without the boss there so that'll be the real test."

"You'll do great, I know you will!" She plucked the ice cream from my hands and scooped some out, popping it into her mouth. "So, we're watching Riverdale?"

I grinned and un paused the TV show, settling into the couch with Liz where we spent the rest of the night chatting, gossiping, and swooning over the male characters in Riverdale.

Was this being a normal teenager?

Most of my teenage life, I spent it following Dad around from country to country, never caring to make friends because I knew we wouldn't be in one spot for long. That was a lesson I learned quick. It was lonely, but it was better than having to say goodbye a million times over.

"Liz," I started and she whipped her head around to look at me. How was I supposed to show her how much it meant to me? Was it lame to tell her that I never really had any friends? She wouldn't think I was a loser or anything, that's not who Liz was, but would she pity me?

"Hmm?" She prompted as I thought.

"Thanks… for coming over."

She grinned, and we continued on with our night. Our normal, teenage night.

* * *

Sweat plastered my hair to my forehead and trickled down into my eyes. I peeled off my sweaty gym shirt, slinging it over the change room stall, and blindly felt around my bag for a clean one. I knew it was in here, I just knew it…

"What the fu-"

"Want your shirt? You'll have to come out and get it." A bitchy voice proudly said from the other side of the door. Mila.

Liz had changed and left for her next class by now, it was just me and Mila, and her stupid friends left in the change rooms.

 _Nobody to save you._

I used my arm to wipe the sweat away from my eyes and stood upright. If I were a cartoon, steam would be billowing out of my ears and I'd tear a hole through the door, just to tear Mila to shreds. However, I was a real human being and didn't possess the strength to take her down.

"Give it back, Mila." I demanded, trying my best to sound bored of her antics. The last thing she needed was to know that she was getting under my skin. "Don't you have a class to get to?"

"Do you really want me to leave with your shirt? Come out and get it, Saunders."

I did the best job I could of covering myself up as I unlocked the stall door and peered out. A flash of auburn hair assaulted my eyes and I caught a glimpse of Mila's face. A smirk graced her features as she stared me down through the crack. Sure enough, she held my clean shirt, and my dirty gym shirt in each of her hands, swinging them about on the ends of her fingers.

"Come on out." She taunted. "We won't bite."

 _No of course you won't, you'll just torment me until my high school days are over._

Looking down at my body, I thanked God that I wore a decent sports bra, however I knew there'd be _something_ she'd find to tease me about. I cracked open the door further, revealing Mila and six of her friends who I didn't recognise standing around her. With one arm covering my exposed skin and the other held out to Mila, willing for her to give me my clothes bag, I emerged from the stall. With each step I took away from privacy, Mila and her friends giggled and laughed, pointing at my chest.

"Oh no, are those bug bites?" She gestured to my breasts. "So small!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah yeah, jokes over. Give me my stuff."

The shutter of a camera caught my attention and I whipped my head around to my right where a brunette girl had her phone held up. The shutter clicked again and I made a swipe for the girls hand, trying to knock the phone out of her grasp, but she dodged me, taking a further three images in the process. That's when I noticed two other girls following me with their phones, videoing my embarrassment.

A sob bubbled up inside me but I shoved it back down. Mila couldn't see my weakness, she just couldn't. That'd make me a further target for whatever sick, twisted plans she came up with.

I backed up into the safety of the bathroom stall while the seven girls cheered and cackled, as if they'd just pulled the funniest prank in existance.

"God, has she hit puberty yet?"

"What a little weirdo."

"Nice one, Mila."

"That'll show her."

I listened to them talk for the next minute until their voices faded and the heavy thud of the change room door broke me from my trance.

Did that really just happen?

I cracked the stall door opened for a second time, peering out to make sure the coast was clear. Surely enough, they had all left.

But there was no trace of either of my shirts. She didn't even submerge them in the toilet. That bitch took them with her as souvenirs.

I hastily dug my phone out of my bag and messaged Liz. Minutes past with no reply before I remembered that she kept her phone in her locker between classes. A frustrated cry escaped me and I finally let a tear run down my cheek.

I searched through my Facebook contacts for anybody that could possible help me before finding a somebody that I really didn't want to have to message.

 _Can you bring a spare shirt to the gym locker room?_

I hit send and waited only seconds before I received a reply from Tori.

 _Okay…?_

No questions asked. Good. The last thing I needed was to re-live my humiliation.

I used the next eight minutes to take advantage of the empty locker room and sob freely as I hugged myself. Was this normal? Were high school kids always this mean? Because Mila was a fucking evil cow.

"Chloe?" An uncharacteristically quiet Tori's voice broke through my thoughts.

"In here." I told her.

She threw over a long sleeved, black t-shirt and I hastily pulled it over my head before replacing my gym shorts with my black jeans. The shirt was a few sizes too big so I rolled up the sleeves and tucked it into my waistband. I opened the change room door to find Tori still on the other side. Her face looked like she had seen a ghost.

"What?" I asked her. "Are you okay?"

"Am I oka- really? You're asking if I'm-" Tori sputtered. "I thought it was weird you were asking me to bring you a shirt." She fished her phone out of her pocket and pressed some buttons. "Chloe, what did they do to you?"

"W-w-wh-"

 _The photos._

"Show me."

"Chloe I don't think you should-"

"Show me, Tori." I demanded.

"I'm not friends with them." She bit her lip hesitantly. "It's been forwarded around the whole school." She spun her phone screen around to face me, and there I was. All in my half-naked glory, for the whole school to see apparently. The video showed me swipe at one of the girls who was taking photos of me just minutes earlier, and the photos were unflattering snaps of me facing off with Mila, who just so happened to look picture-perfect and unmoved by her actions.

"They move quick." I squeaked. "Didn't take long for these to get out." I said as I handed back her phone. If I held it for any longer I would have thrown it at the wall, smashing it into a hundred tiny pieces. The sympathetic look on Tori's face told me that she wouldn't blame me if I did.

"If you want to skip out on the rest of today I'll cover for you." She said gently. This was a whole new side to Tori, the complete opposite of who I met on the first day here at Buffalo high, or the girl who sat on the sofa at hers and Simon's party and mocked me for being drunk.

"Why are you being so nice to me? I thought you couldn't care less about what happened to me."

"Because Liz is a good judge of character, and you're her friend."

I pursed my lips and stared up at the ceiling, willing myself not to cry in front of Tori.

"I'm going to kill those bitches." I heard her mutter. Laughter bubbled up and I sputtered out a giggle. "But for real though, go home, Chloe."

I shook my head at her. "I need to finish off this stupid English project with Derek after school."

"Derek can wait."

I shook my head again. "I think I'm just going to hang out in the library for the rest of the day."

"Okay," She said hesitantly, "But nobody's going to blame you if you need to leave."

"Thanks, Tori."

I ditched the rest of my classes for the day in favour of the Library. Nobody could taunt me in the safety of my table hidden right in the back corner, after all. I alternated between working on my homework, and crying until I couldn't cry any more. My phone buzzed every twenty seconds in my pocket for hours on end, before I took it out and slammed the screen down on the desk, shattering it into a hundred different pieces. Something I wish I did to those girls' phones as they taunted me.

"Woah, our project isn't that hard. What's got you so frustrated?" A gruff voice startled me. I spun around to see Derek shrugging his bag off his shoulder and plopping down on the chair next to me. I used my sleeve to wipe at my face, but that couldn't hide my bloodshot and swollen eyes.

"You've been crying?" He asked, a softness in his voice that I hadn't yet heard.

"I'm fine. Let's get stuck into thi-"

"Chloe!" An arm wrapped around my shoulders from behind, a blanket of blonde hair fell over my face and I could smell Liz's flowery perfume. "I'm sorry, I left my phone in my locker and I didn't get to check it until now and-"

"It's fine Liz, Tori sorted me out."

"I know but what Mila did, Chloe. How did she even-"

"What happened?" Derek asked through grit teeth.

"Nothing." I hurried out. "Absolutely nothing. Liz, can I call you tonight? I really need to finish up this project."

"I'm coming over. With chocolate and movies."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Liz, it's a Wednesday."

"And you need my support on a Wednes-"

"Okay, okay. I'll text you."

Liz squeezed my shoulder before disappearing behind the shelves.

"You know what? I'm not even going to ask." He said as he set down a stack of books with a heavy thud.

"Thank you."

We finished our project with two days to spare. Friday was our day to present it to the class and we were both happy with how it turned out, and were putting the finishing touches on it. Fishing my phone out of my pocket to text Liz, I saw how badly damaged it was. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything with it.

"Hey Derek…" I trailed off.

"Hmm?"

"My phone's broken. I need to message Liz, think I could borrow yours?"

He reached into his pocket without so much as looking up from his book and handed it to me. "Passcode is 3762."

I gratefully accepted and typed out a quick message to her.

"And Derek…?"

"What?"

"Did you… get any texts today?"

"Simon messaged me earlier about borrowing my car. There's no chance in hell." He shook his head. "Why?"

"Just… just wondering." I told him as I sent the text off to Liz, telling her to not bother replying. Handing back the phone to Derek, he finally looked up at me, quizzically, but didn't say a word.

I silently thanked him for that.

* * *

Friday rolled around and my body ached to get far, far away from school. I had since replaced my iPhone, after telling Dad some little white lies as to why exactly it needed to be replaced so soon, leaving out all the gory details of how the entire school has seen pictures of my half naked body. I was on the receiving end of that typical lecture of how I needed to be more careful, and that money doesn't grow on trees.

Well duh.

On the bright side, I learned a valuable lesson and began checking my bag for a clean shirt before shedding my gross old gym shirt.

Whispers circled me everywhere I went, there was really no escaping it. All I could do was hold my head high and pretend that I didn't give a shit what anybody thought, and that I wasn't scared of what Mila would do next.

But on the inside, I wanted to run away screaming and crying. I wanted to beat Mila in the face with a baseball bat. Hurt her before she could hurt me more than she already had. I wanted to find a reason to follow Dad to Berlin that wouldn't make him worry and panic that I was going to do something drastic. I'd caused him enough worry throughout the years.

A mix of sympathetic and vicious whispers followed me as I walked to my next class - English. It was finally time for Derek and I to present our interactive Power Point on Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_. I sat down at my desk and out the corner of my eye, watched Derek fidget in his seat. Something told me that he wasn't much of a public speaker.

We sat patiently as pairs of students presented their seven minute speeches. There was a mix of posters, pop-up booklets, role plays and Power Points. None of which, however, were interactive like ours was.

Mr Doyle clapped for two boys, Andrew and Peter after they presented a short, yet creative, video on the classic novel _The Count of Monte Cristo_. He scrawled down some notes in a little book for a moment before peering on over at Derek and me.

"Saunders, Souza, let's hear it."

The class mumbled between each other as Derek and I fiddled with the laptop and projector, trying to find and open our file. After a couple of minutes, and a mini heart attack of thinking we only had our draft presentation, we had the complete attention of the class.

However for me, it was uncomfortable. I felt Mila's gaze on me the entire time we were setting up.

Derek cleared his throat and began to speak, his voice trembled to begin with but he eventually found his strength.

"There were a lot of themes to choose from in Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_. However my partner, Chloe and I decided to focus our attention on the themes of appearances, lies and deceit, revenge, and sacrifice."

I looked down at my notes and took a deep breath before continuing on. "T-h-he theme of a-appearances-"

"C-c-can somebody smack her on the back and restart her? I think she's b-b-broken." Mila piped up from the back of the class. The rest of the students, save a few, erupted into fits of laughter.

Another deep breath. My hands trembled and I willed myself to not go and club her over the head with the heaviest textbook I could find. "Speech impediments are very funny. Can we continue?" I rolled my eyes as I looked down at my cue cards, shuffling through to the next one.

"Isn't that a disability?" Another random girl snickered.

"Yeah but those mosquito bites aren't." A boy hollered from the other side of the room.

My hands trembled and I felt tears cascade down my cheeks. I tried my best to hide them from the class but I was right in the spotlight, standing directly in front of everybody.

"Chloe…" Derek gently touched my forearm.

I snapped out of it before ripping my USB from the laptop, grabbing my bag from the table and running out of the classroom. I barely even closed the door before I choked out a sob. My head felt foggy and my hands tingled. The familiar feeling of a panic attack fell over me like a heavy blanket, weighing me down as I hurried towards my locker. My lungs felt like they were on fire with every breath that I took, and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.

I reached my locker and I could barely keep my hands still enough to enter my combination. After several tries I let out a frustrated cry and bashed my fist against the beige metal door until I lost feeling in my knuckles. Students heard the commotion and watched on from their classroom doors as I ran my hands through my hair in a panic.

I felt another hand snake through my hair and encase my own, gently prying it open so I wouldn't tear it out.

"Chloe, stop." A soft voice whispered in my ear as I choked out a painful sob. The person gently led me away, I wasn't sure which direction we were going, but I just hoped that it was far, far away from the eyes that I could feel watching over me from the safety of their classrooms.

A gentle yet firm grasp on my elbow led me through the corridors of the school until I heard a door open, then shut behind us. I looked around at the empty classroom before finally settling my gaze on Simon who looked down at me with a face full of worry. He was saying something, but I couldn't hear him.

I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the overwhelming emotion that I was feeling. Maybe it was the way that Simon looked at me. Maybe it was knowing that somebody actually cared. But I broke. I sobbed, louder than last time, as I moved towards Simon's open arms. He wrapped me in a tight hug as I used his shirt as a tissue and held me there until my sobbing subsided into small shudders. He held my head to his chest with one hand as the other circled around my shoulders, rubbing small, soothing circles into my back as I calmed down.

"Talk to me." He mumbled into my hair.

"D-D-Derek and I… we were doing a p-presentation for English-"

"And Mila's in your class?" He asked. I nodded, my face still buried in his shirt, and he sighed. "Here, have a seat." He told me as he pulled away, but kept a grip on my shoulder. His white t-shirt was now stained with mascara and snotty tears. Leading me over to a desk, he sat me down as he fished his phone out of his pocket and dialled a phone number.

"Bro- yeah, I've got her. Yeah, we're in room E12. Gotcha." He shut his phone off and stuffed it back in his jeans before grabbing a chair and taking a seat directly in front of me.

"You're missing out on class." I said with a raspy voice. A pang of guilt hit me knowing that Simon had to take time out of his class to deal with me.

"Pshh, I don't need to learn maths."

"Yes you do." A gruff voice said from behind him. My English partner, Derek, closed the classroom door behind him with a solid thud. "You need to brush up on your fractions otherwise you'll never graduate."

"You moved quick." Simon responded, completely ignoring what his brother had said about graduating.

Derek looked directly at me, and I couldn't bring myself to make eye contact with him, instead looking out the window. "Mr Doyle is allowing us to redo our presentation-"

"No." I said firmly, darting my eyes to him. "I'm not standing in front of that class to be humiliated again."

"Let me finish, Chloe." He barked and crossed his arms. I winced and in that moment, I felt like I was three inches tall. Did Derek not just see what happened?

"Woah, dude, bit harsh?" Simon sprung up from his seat and turned to Derek.

Derek rolled his eyes at his brother's eagerness to stand up for me. "As I was saying, we can redo our presentation with no audience. Just Mr Doyle. Whenever you're ready."

"Does it have to be today?" I whispered, pleading with my eyes to postpone it just a little bit longer.

"Whenever you're ready." Derek repeated. "Next week works best for me." He turned on his heel and left the classroom, leaving Simon and I alone again.

"He's mad, isn't he?" I covered my face with my hands and rested my elbows on my thighs.

"Derek's not mad. He's just… he doesn't know how to show feelings."

"Like a sociopath?" I asked, trying to put a little humour into my words but apparently it didn't quite translate.

"God, Chloe no!" He shook his head. "Let me rephrase. Derek doesn't like to show his feelings. He's always been that way. He just lets things eat away at him on the inside."

"And he's probably harbouring some serious hate towards me right now."

"I wouldn't worry about Derek in this situation. Let's talk about you."

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Have you seen the video? The photos." Simon pressed his lips into a straight line, which told me that he didn't want to answer. "Simon, please, just tell me…"

"They were sent to my phone, yes. But the second I realised what it was, I deleted it, I swear. I made everyone else do the same."

"Do you think it was forwarded to the whole school? Tori said they were." I looked up at him, and the face he made told me that I didn't want to know the answer.

God, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Or jump on the next plane to Berlin and say bye to Buffalo forever. But of course, that would raise some serious red flags to Dad. He knew I was stoked on staying in Buffalo to graduate, and the last thing he wanted was his near-adult daughter to come crying to daddy every time there was a mild inconvenience.

"You don't have to stay for the rest of the day." Simon told me. "I can take you home."

I could use a nap before work tonight. "Yeah, thanks Simon."

"Let me just grab the keys from Derek."

Simon disappeared and came back after a few minutes. He led me out of the classroom and into the student car park where he opened the passenger door to a black Toyota sedan. I hopped in and he closed the door after me before shuffling around to the driver's side and getting in. The engine roared to life and we pulled out of the parking lot and set off in the direction of my house.

"You've got the whole weekend to forget about all of this." He grinned over at me, but I wasn't having a bar of it.

"Or a whole week to wallow in misery before going back to school to be taunted even further." I grumbled back. "The whole school is laughing at my boobs, for crying out loud."

"Come on, Chlo, these are art kids. They never focus their attention on one thing for too long. Somebody's probably already streaked for part of an art project, they're all focused on that now.

I slumped down in the seat and pressed my head against the window, feeling the cold soothe the throbbing headache that threatened to appear and ruin my day even further. Watching the houses pass soothed me. It reminded me of being in the car when I was little, going on road trips with Mom and Dad. I always tried to see how many houses I could count before we were driving too fast to keep track. Mom would tell me that she only counted ten, and I'd proudly tell her that I counted twenty five.

She always let me win. She made me feel like a winner. Unbeatable.

Sometimes it was like that feeling died with her.

* * *

 **Oh, my feelings! Poor Chloe :'(**

 **How do you guys feel about the length of these chapters? More? Less? Leave a review and let me know, and if you guys have any song recommendations I'd love to hear them. I need to seriously get a new playlist because I've been listening to the same pop-punk/alternative stuff since I was a teenager haha!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Another update! These chapters just keep getting longer and longer. I've written up to chapter 17 currently and the story keeps getting better (if I do say so myself). I'm really excited for you guys to read it, because I'm super proud of how far I've come as a writer!**

* * *

Simon lied. Nobody forgot what happened. The second I walked into the building I was followed by whispers and stares. One girl even came up to ask where I shopped for my sports bras, and it wasn't in a nice way either.

I wanted to smack my head on the door of my locker and knock myself out so I'd be carted away to anywhere but school, but something told me that being wheeled into a hospital would give my aunt an aneurysm. She was worried enough after Mr Doyle called her on Friday after my freak out, and I had to find a convincing enough lie to get her off my back. All she knew was that I had a mild panic attack.

"Well hey, Bug Bites." A voice said from behind me. I didn't even have to turn around to see who it was, instead, I kept digging through my locker to find my math textbook. "Helloooo?"

I stuffed my books into my bag before swinging my locker door shut and walking away in the opposite direction. A hand snaked around my forearm, firm enough to stop me in my tracks. Fingernails dug into my skin and I instinctively pulled away and spun around.

"Not interested, Mila." I spat and turned away, only to be grabbed onto again, this time harder.

"You don't get it, do you?" She looked down her nose at me as her group of friends stared on. "You think you can just waltz on into a new school and act the way you do? Nobody talks to me that way. Do you think you're special?"

"Do you think _you_ are?" I asked, trying to match the tone of condescension in her voice. "What do you want me to do? Kiss your feet?" I scoffed.

"Gross. No. I want you to stay out of my way."

"I was doing a perfectly fine job of that until you decided to corner me in the locker room and share my half naked body with the entire school."

" _Oh no,_ the cry baby was seen in her sports bra!" She taunted before looking around at her friends who laughed with her. "I'd be embarrassed too, especially with a body like _that_. Are you sure you've hit puberty yet?"

"Maybe showing off your bits is a second nature to you, but I don't roll that way." I told her before shrugging off her grip once again.

"How dare you." She shrieked. My face stung as her hand collided with my cheek and I reeled back in shock, cradling my face.

My Aunt Lauren's voice shouted in the back of my head, telling me to just walk away and be the bigger person. Fighting wasn't necessary, right?

But instead, another part of me lunged forward at Mila, pushing her to the ground and I went tumbling down with her.

Fists flew as a sea of students surrounded us within seconds, roaring with laughter and jeering as we rolled around on the linoleum. We grunted as we took turns slapping, punching and kicking each other, with Mila calling me every name under the sun. It started with me on top of her, slapping her across the face however I was overpowered quickly. Mila was a head taller than me and had at least twenty pounds advantage. She straddled my waist as I flailed about, trying to defend myself from her attack. Blow after blow, I was seeing stars. I watched once more as her hand came down on me, this time clawing my face. I felt a warm trickle of blood pool across my left cheekbone and reached up to grab at her hair, throwing her off balance. She tumbled to the floor once again beside me and I took the chance to regain my advantage and climbed back on top of her.

Shouting pulled me out of my trance, but I refused to look away. Mila panted underneath me as she flailed her arms, trying to bring me back down to her level. Her auburn hair was dishevelled and spread out around her, her eyes wild with anger and another emotion I couldn't quite place. Her chest heaved and as she took one last swing at me, but I stopped the blow and instead grabbed onto her wrists, holding her down. I could hear my name being called but instead of trying to find the source, I leaned down to Mila. Our faces were mere inches away and I held her gaze.

"We. Are. Done." I told her.

A strong pair of arms reached under me and pulled me away, completely sweeping my feet off the floor. I struggled with my captor as they ushered me down the corridor and away from the crowd of students that surrounded Mila, who was now being tended to by a teacher.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" A gruff voice said from beside me - Derek.

I struggled to get out of his grip, but he was too strong for me. Instead I dug my heels into the floor, effectively stopping us. "Let me go." I shook my arm out of his grasp, letting out a small gasp at how tightly he was holding onto me. I cradled my arm and looked up at him as I rubbed where he was holding just seconds ago.

Derek winced as he realised what he had done. "Sorry." He murmured. I spun on my heel and attempted to hightail out of there, tears finally spilling down my face. "Hey!" He ran after me, his shoes slapping loudly on the floor. "Principal Ersby is going to want to see you."

I adjusted my bag on my shoulder. "I don't care. He's just going to expel me anyway. Ersby can suck it."

"Jesus Christ, Chloe, are you trying to ruin your life?" He laid a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. Before he could say anything else, my name was being called over the intercom.

"Chloe Saunders, please report to principal Ersby's office."

"Great." I muttered.

"Well?" Derek probed. "Are you going to go?"

"Guess I don't have much of a choice."

* * *

"Miss Saunders, have a seat." The greying man gestured towards an uncomfortable black, plastic seat on the other side of his desk before pushing his reading glasses up his nose. Aunt Lauren sat in an identical seat, not even making a move to look me in the eye as I approached her.

After a moment of silence and awkward eye contact with Mr Ersby, he shuffled some papers and cleared his throat. "Chloe, after some… deliberation… with your Aunt, we have decided against expulsion this time. Instead you'll be suspended for the rest of the week, with two mandatory on-campus counselling sessions with Miss Talbot."

"And what about Mila?" I asked.

"Miss Andrews will be serving two days suspension."

"Two days?" I scoffed. "That's it? What kind of school is this that you can instigate a fight and only be suspended for _two days_ while the victim gets shunted off for a whole week?"

"Chloe!" Aunt Lauren snapped.

"Miss Saunders, please." He held up his hand. "Your aunt and I have negotiated this punishment, and this is not being taken lightly. Buffalo High has a zero tolerance policy on violence. We have both come to an agreement that this is a suitable punishment, both for you and Miss Andrews."

"Then why is my punishment harsher than the instigators?"

"Chloe Jennifer Saunders!" Aunt Lauren screeched at me. "That is _enough_."

"Miss Fellows, it's normal for children to have ques-"

" _No._ Her mother taught her better than this." She turned her anger on Mr Ersby. "Jennifer would be turning over in her grave if she saw Chloe behaving this wa-"

" _No_ , Miss Fellows." He stopped her, a stern tone seeping into his usually friendly voice. "There are some underlying issues at play here and this is why we have mandated Chloe to two counselling sessions during this week. We do not need to instil shame and guilt in your niece by bringing her late mother into this."

"But-"

"That is enough, Lauren." He said finally. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like a moment to speak with Chloe alone."

Aunt Lauren took one glance and me and oh boy, if looks could kill…

The door slammed shut behind me and I winced, and I could have sworn I saw principal Ersby do the same. He took a moment to gather himself before folding his hands together on his desk and looking at me.

"Chloe, I understand the circumstances surrounding your transfer back to Buffalo aren't ideal, and I understand why a young woman in your situation might… act out." He hesitated. "However that does not excuse fighting. There are many different things we had to consider when negotiating your punishment, and extenuating circumstances are what have saved you from being expelled this time. However I unfortunately have to let you know that if something like this happens again, expulsion may be our only other option."

I gulped. "Yes Mr Ersby."

"I know you're a good kid, Chloe. Don't let mean girls get the better of you."

I quickly wrapped up my one-on-one with Mr Ersby and left his office to finally face Aunt Lauren.

"Come on." She barked at me and spun around on her heel, heading for the exit.

"What? That's all you're going to say?"

She ignored me up until we reached the car. I threw my bag into the backseat as Lauren got in, slamming the driver's side door with a solid thud.

Walking home had never looked so appealing.

Perhaps I was being a touch on the optimistic side, thinking Lauren would just drop me home and head off to work. Instead she barged her way into the house, hot on my heels as I threw my bag on the kitchen counter and raided the fridge for some orange juice.

"Chloe Jennifer Saunders," She pinched the bridge of her nose. "What do you think you're doing?! First gym class and now you're attacking other students? What has gotten into you?"

I turned around and shrugged before finding a glass and pouring myself a drink.

"Jesus Christ." She ran her hands through her hair. "Is this because Steve left? I knew it. What an irresponsible, selfish, good for nothing-"

"Aunt Lauren!" I barked.

"You're lucky you got off with a slap on the wrist, let me tell you Chloe. If I hadn't intervened you would have been expelled. Then what, huh? Your dream of going to an arts school would have gone right down the drain because of your ego."

"M-my ego?"

"Yes Chloe, your damn ego!" She screeched, exasperated. "Why would you let a mean girl get the better of you like that?"

I shrugged again.

"Do I need to move in here and keep an eye on you?"

"No Aunt Lauren."

"Are you sure? Because I can't trust that you're going to act your age. I can't even ground you because you'll just leave the house anyway. I don't even know who you are anymore. Jennifer would be-"

"Don't bring mom into this." I snapped at her, more venom in my voice than intended. She reeled back with eyebrows raised, shocked that I dared say anything.

"Chloe I-"

"You don't know _anything_ about what's happened at school. You just like to make your own assumptions and try to guilt me when I finally stand up for myself by bringing Mom into it. I don't know if you remember, Aunt Lauren, but Mom would have been proud of me for holding my own, because I'm not a little girl anymore." I slammed the fridge door shut behind me and left the kitchen.

"You can let yourself out." I called behind my shoulder.

Aunt Lauren didn't say a peep.

* * *

I swung the door open, fully prepared to give Aunt Lauren an ear-full for daring to come back to yell at me again. Instead on the other side of the door was a grinning Simon, holding a big stack of textbooks and knowing that textbooks meant homework, I suddenly wished it was Aunt Lauren.

"Thought you'd need something to keep you busy for the next week." He beamed.

I groaned. "And here I was thinking this would be a nice holiday…" I replied sarcastically.

We moved inside and stood across from each other over the kitchen counter. I poured us each a glass of juice and Simon thanked me, his golden eyes dancing with amusement. He leaned over and grazed his thumb over the top of my cheek where Mila had scratched me. "Damn, I'd hate to see the other guy." He said.

My stomach did a little flip. "Yeah, she did a number on me." I chuckled awkwardly.

"Never thought you were the fighting type." He leaned his elbows on the counter and propped his chin on top of his hands. "What's it like to be a badass?"

"Sore." I made a point of touching my ribs. "Very, very sore."

He shot me a sympathetic look. "You know, you're brave. Getting into it with Mila. She's something powerful around here, her dad has a lot of money and-"

"And that's why she only got suspended for two days while I serve a week even though she hit me first. Yep, I gathered that."

Simon shrugged. "She's a bitch. Everyone knows she's a bitch, even her friends. She might seem really popular, but those other girls you see hanging out with her? They're scared."

"Just like every other high school bully I've come across." I sighed. "Is everyone talking about it?"

Simon chewed his lip. "Yeah, they are… but they'll forget it soon."

"You said that about the photos." I told him pointedly. He smiled sheepishly at me and directed a conversation in a different direction.

"So, how are you going to spend your week of freedom?" He asked. "House to yourself, no responsibilities…"

I scoffed. "You've brought me enough homework to last a lifetime. I don't think I'll have any time for freedom. Besides, if Aunt Lauren catches me out of the house then I'm toast."

"Grounded?"

"No, she just thinks the way I've been behaving renders me undeserving of the outside world. She'd lock me up in the highest castle tower right now if she could."

"Well, if you ever need a Prince Charming to come and rescue you, I'm your man."

"Okay Shrek, let's not get carried away too much." I giggled. "But really, I should get started on all this homework."

"And that's my cue to leave." He smiled as he pushed himself away from the counter. "Got it."

I said goodbye to Simon at the door and closed it behind him, a giddy feeling swirling around in the pit of my stomach.

* * *

Friday rolled around and Aunt Lauren hadn't said a word to me since I kicked her out of my house. Not that I was actively trying to reach her, but typically she would have called to check in by now, being the overbearing adult figure in my life and all.

I wasn't complaining though. I was able to serve my suspension - and 2 mandatory counselling sessions - in peace. The week allowed me to catch up on all of my homework and assignments by Wednesday morning, and the rest of it was non-stop movie marathons and junk food with Liz. It really did feel like a holiday, even though suspension was supposed to be a punishment. The worst part of it was the counselling where I had to go back to school for an hour each session. I tried to go during classes where I wouldn't bee seen, but that failed me, and I was subjected to the same whispers and taunts as before.

The sessions themselves didn't do much, or tell me things I didn't already know. Mrs Talbot, the counsellor, basically accused me of acting up out of jealousy of Mila, which I furiously denied. She hit the nail on the head, however, when she 'assumed' I didn't have a motherly figure in my life, even though that was more than likely clearly written on my file. I let her have that victory.

So that brought me to Friday, the last day of my suspension. I had finally caught up on all the episodes of various TV shows I had been meaning to watch.

I threw a black t-shirt over my head and struggled with my black skinny jeans to get them up over my slowly but surely growing hips. Mila had the balls to ask if I'd gone through puberty yet on the day we fought, and the fact I was growing outwards now made me want to rub it in her smug face. But at the same time, growing meant needing a new wardrobe, and I dreaded the thought.

I'd have to enlist Liz's help…

I walked 25 minutes until I reached Jay's Vinyl for my shift. When I stepped through the door I noticed that it was packed. Four customers were lining up at the counter while another seven were scattered throughout the small, cramped store, browsing through the stacks of records. Jay was behind the counter, dealing with an irate customer.

"Chloe, can you fix this?" He asked as he angled the computer screen towards me. "I've tried everything!" I was met with a frozen screen. It took me a moment before I hit a few buttons to force quit the point of sale software and rebooted it, causing Jay to sigh in relief.

"Why own a business if you can't even troubleshoot yourself? Twenty minutes is ridiculous!" The irate man on the other side of the counter muttered before slamming down a fifty dollar bill. Jay pretended not to hear it and processed the sale, handing the customer in his change and bidding him a polite farewell. The next three customers were miffed, however they didn't say anything.

He continued to process sales while I walked around the store floor offering assistance to other customers, offering recommendations, helping navigate through different genres, and dealing with general enquiries. Within thirty minutes the store was empty, and Jay exclaimed excitedly that we had already hit our sales target for the day, and it wasn't even five o'clock yet.

"Man, I'm glad you showed up when you did." He said as he cracked open a can of Coke. "Usually December is our busy period."

"People must be getting their Christmas shopping in early this year." I shrugged.

"Doesn't bother me. Keeps the store afloat." He hoisted his backpack over his shoulder. "You think you'll be alright on your own for the rest of the night? That must have been the evening rush come early."

"I'm sure I'll be fine." I said as I plopped down on the swivel chair behind the desk.

Jay left after saying goodbye and I set about to tidy up the store after the rush of customers. I ended up having to go through all of the genres separately to make sure everything was in the right place after finding a jazz record in with the alternative rock. Seriously, who does that?

I had just finished organising and dusting the shelves when the door dinged and a tall boy walked into the store. He looked familiar but I couldn't quite place it, maybe a boy that went to my school? Surely, it was, because I didn't know anybody else. I studied him as he walked over to the pop-punk section and began flipping through the albums. His long dirty blonde hair fell into his eyes and he routinely brushed it away whenever it became a bother.

I busied myself by responding to customer email enquiries as a few more people entered to look around before leaving, and once again I was stuck in the store alone with the strangely familiar boy that I couldn't quite put a name to…

"Chloe, right?"

My head snapped up from what I was doing and I met his hazel eyes.

"Y-yeah."

"Almost didn't recognise you, last time we met you were killing it at beer pong." He laughed, and then it clicked.

"It's Mike, isn't it?"

"Yup." He said, popping the 'p'. "Didn't know you worked here, I come in quite a bit."

"I'm still new."

"It's a cool little shop, isn't it. Hey, think you could help me find an album?" He asked.

I brought up our stock database and hovered my fingers over the keyboard. "Shoot."

"Peace and the Panic by Neck Deep."

"Good album." I typed it in and hit enter. We waited for a few seconds before any results showed and I chewed my lip as I analysed them. "Looks like we don't have any in store. I can order it for you?"

"Please. I didn't know you like Neck Deep?"

"All you know about me is that I suck at gym class, and suck even worse at beer pong." I laughed.

I took down his details and wrote a note for Jay to make an order. Mike spent a few extra minutes browsing before coming back up with a few indie rock albums and checked out. I gave him a good price as he had an account with the store, and he smiled at me gratefully.

"Thanks Chloe, I'll be sure to tell Jay how great your customer service is." He grinned as he popped his new records into a backpack.

A blush ran across my cheeks as he left the store and I glanced at the clock. Quarter to nine. I rushed out to bring in our signs and locked the door behind me so I could count the til. After throwing the money and paperwork into the safe, I set the security alarm and left, locking the door behind me. I rubbed my hands together as the cold air nipped at my exposed skin and wished that I brought a jacket, but assured myself that the walk home would warm me up.

I stuck to the streets illuminated by light poles, passing through the town before reaching the more dimly lit suburban areas. There were still plenty of people walking on the main streets, and I'd made this walk back to my house the last two Fridays after work, so I thought nothing of it when I began to cut through the park.

Lights flickered overhead as the wind whipped my hair around my face. I pulled it back into a lazy bun and kept walking on, passing stranger after stranger. The park was large with a lot of trees and shrubbery. Leaves fell as the wind assaulted the trees and I sputtered as one was blown into my face. I giggled at how silly I probably looked as I stumbled back, fighting with a leaf. I pushed on and passed the fountain, centred in the middle of the park, where two teenage boys sat. Avoiding eye contact, I walked straight past them. I felt their eyes on my back as I walked further away, then a shuffling sound caught my attention. It sounded like two pairs sneakers on pavement, and the sound grew louder as I moved further away from the fountain. I picked up my pace and was all but running by that point. One of the shuffling sounds became shoes slapping on the ground as one of them ran and before I knew it, that same boy, no wait, man, that cornered me in Simon's backyard was towering over me. Simon said his name was Liam. Liam Malloy.

"Thought you looked familiar, cutie. We didn't get a chance to say goodbye last time." He leaned over me, his breath reeking of cigarettes. I could have gagged.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." I said as I stepped to my right.

He copied my movements, effectively blocking me from continuing down the path. "Oi Ramon, this is the little one I told you about from that Bae kid's party that I crashed." He called out over my shoulder. I didn't dare to glance over at who he was talking to, instead keeping my gaze on Liam. "Oh but you do know what I'm talking about. I asked if you partied and you scurried away."

I stepped to my left this time, and once again he blocked me.

"It's fine, a bit of herb isn't your thing, I get that and I apologise for making you uncomfortable."

"Okay." I replied weakly. "I have to get going, my dad is expecting me-"

He chuckled loudly. "No he's not. You're Chloe Saunders. Everyone 'round here knows your daddy ain't in town. Everybody knows who you are. I don't like being lied to, cutie." He stepped closer. "Now where were we? Oh that's right-" He picked up a loose strand of my blonde hair and took it into his hand. "You weren't into the drugs, huh?"

"I'm not a dropkick, if that's what you're asking." I spat at him harshly.

A look of anger flashed across his face before a predatory grin replaced it. "But, Chloe, wanna know what everyone's into?"

"Not really." I told him as I tried to push past. He laid a firm hand on my shoulder, effectively stopping me from moving away.

"Sex."

My stomach churned at his words and bile burned at my throat.

"I want to pick up where we left off at that party." He said as he stepped closer. "You and me could have some fun."

I swiftly dodged out of his grip on my shoulder, but not quickly enough. His hand slid down to my wrist where he squeezed it tight and yanked, pulling me flush against his body. I let out a scream but it was cut short by his free hand clamping over my mouth and I struggled with all my might as he moved us away from the path. My feet lifted off the ground as he hoisted me up and I flailed them around, kicking at his shins and scratching with my free hand. He moved us between the trees where he set me down on my feet again.

"Shut up." He hissed in my ear as he tightened his grip, causing me to whimper underneath his hand.

I twisted my body around to face him and with all the fight I had left in me, I brought my hand up and pinched the flabby part underneath his bicep, causing to hiss in pain and pull away. With my new freedom, I took the chance and jerked my knee up into his crotch. I watched Liam double over in pain as I backed away, looking around for the boy he was hanging out with by the fountain. With no other person in sight, I legged it out of there, pushing myself to run back to the main road. I sobbed hysterically as I stumbled and tripped, reaching out in front of me my hands broke my fall. Ignoring the stinging feeling, I scrambled to my feet and immediately bumped into a warm, fleshy wall. I looked up, fully expecting to see Liam glaring down at me.

"Woah what- Chloe?" Simon laid his hands on my arms, his touch gentle, nothing like Liam's.

Bile rose in my throat for a second time that night. I shook myself out of Simon's grip and stumbled a few feet away where I emptied the contents of my stomach into a nearby bush.

"Oh Jesus, Chloe." Simon scrambled over to my side and gathered my hair in his hands, keeping it away from my face as I vomited. My body rocked as I heaved and I dug my fingers into the dirt, worried that if I didn't I'd topple over into a pool of my own puke.

Simon waited patiently for me to finish up as he rubbed soothing circles in my back. Once I was sure I was done, I scooted back and fell on my butt. I couldn't look at him, I was too ashamed.

"Chlo?" He gently nudged me. "Come on, have some water." He dug through his bag before pulling out a water bottle and handing it to me. I accepted and slowly sipped the drink as he studied me with quizzical eyes.

Thankfully he didn't ask me anything, just gently urged me to stand up so we could get out of the park, and of course I complied. He placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me towards the main road, where he stopped and fiddled with his phone for a second. Two minutes later a silver Chevy pulled over in front of us and Simon opened the back door, ushering me in. He closed it with a thud behind me and raced around to the other side.

The Uber dropped us off outside Simon's house and we watched it as it sped away.

"Simon why are we here?"

"We need to get you cleaned up."

"Cleaned up?"

"You've covered in dirt and blood."

"Oh."

I could barely process what was happening while Simon lead me upstairs to the bathroom. He brought in a change of clothes, a pair of grey basketball shorts and a faded orange hoodie. I was instructed to shower and get all the dirt off, and when I'd finished that, Simon would look over at all my cuts and scrapes.

The shower water was a swampy looking mix of dirt, dried blood and tears. I scrubbed at the parts of me that weren't already raw and scraped up from falling over and pushed down the urge to throw up again. Once I was satisfied that I got _him_ off me, I stepped out to dry myself off and threw on the clothes Simon had gave me.

He was waiting right outside the bathroom with a first aid kit in his hands and I gestured for him to come in. He started by looking at the nasty gravel rash on my cheek. Pebbles clinked in the sink as he pried them out of my face and I never failed to wince every single time.

I sat on the bathroom sink and listened to Simon's heavy breathing, deep in concentration. His breath fanned over my face as he took my chin in his hands, turning it so he could get a better look at all my injuries.

"You can't seem to stay out of trouble, can you?" He shook his head as he applied antiseptic ointment to my cheek.

I hissed at the stinging. "I'm trying my best." I mumbled.

He let go of my face and wiped his hands on a towel before placing them on the sink either side of me. A look of concern darkened his usually bright demeanour. Even with my sitting up on the sink, he was almost still a head taller than me. "So are you going to tell me what happened? Or am I going to have to find out by watching the news?"

I gave him a look and he shrunk back, turning his attention to my grazed palms.

"Liam cornered me."

Simon paused what he was doing and snapped up. "He what?"

I gave Simon a summary of my eventful night, and watched as his features twist from one of concern, to that of rage. He balled his fists and let out a colourful string of profanities with every new detail. It was rare for Simon to go around without a smile on his face, so seeing him squirm in anger scared me. Not for my safety, but he looked like he wanted to run out and find Liam to teach him a lesson.

Not that it would do anything. Liam fought dirty, and I wasn't convinced that Simon had ever been in a fight before.

Once Simon was satisfied that all my wounds were clean and none of my bones were broken, he set up the guestroom for me once again. I sat on the end of the bed as he dragged in a pile of blankets.

"I'm glad I ran into you. Literally."

"Don't even mention it." He beamed and handed me the warmest blanket out of the bunch. "How about a cup of tea?"

I nodded gratefully at him and watches as he disappeared into the hallway.

* * *

My eyes fluttered open and were quickly assaulted by fuzzy glowing red numbers. It felt like the clock illuminated the whole room, casting an eery red light over everything. My mouth felt dry and I reached over to my glass to find it empty.

I shivered and pushed the blankets off me before swinging my legs out of bed and rubbing at my eyes. Glancing at the clock again, it read 3am.

 _Devil's hour._

My toes touched the cold floor and I flinched, hugging the jumper closer to me as if it would magically warm up my toes. I'd barely slept a wink and had spent most of the night so far staring up at the ceiling, going over the millions of different ways the previous night could have gone.

Like what if I carried a knife on me for protection? Would I have used it to defend myself against Liam?

Or what if he had overpowered me? Would I still have ended up in the Bae family's guest room? Or would I still be in the park, fighting for my life?

Floorboards creaked under my feet and shook me from my thoughts as I left the room and found the staircase. Knowing how clumsy I was, I took one stair at a time and clung to the railing as I descended, just in case I toppled down the stairs, shattered the class and impaled myself on it. That wouldn't be pleasant for Simon's family to clean up.

Feeling my way around in pitch dark, I rounded the corner into the kitchen and smacked into a warm, fleshy wall for the second time that night. Except it didn't feel like Simon. I jumped back, stifling a scream and took a moment to calm my breathing, blood rushing through my ears.

"What are you wearing?" Derek's gruff voice asked, sounding confused.

"W-what?"

"That hoodie. It's mine."

"Oh. S-sorry, I can give it bac-"

"Doesn't fit me anymore anyways." I saw his silhouette wave me off. "What are you doing here, Chloe?"

Did I tell him? Or would he start thinking I was trouble? First all these problems with Mila, and now Liam-

"Sleepover. With Tori." I rushed that second part.

"Huh." He stated simply and walked past me. "Cold water in the fridge. Cookies on the third shelf down in the cupboard."

"T-thanks." I watched as he disappeared up the staircase and went about my business, filling up my glass of water. I decided to swipe a few cookies from the cupboard as well and munched on them as I climbed back up the stairs, thinking about my run-in with Derek.

It was then I realised that Derek wasn't wearing a shirt, and I felt my mouth go dry all over again.

* * *

 **Don't forget to leave a review! Reviews are what drives me to write and publish more!**

 **Also, I'd love for some book recommendations :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm a bit late on uploading this, but I don't feel nearly as bad as I normally would because this chapter is over 7,000 words long. Anyways, we get a little more info on Chloe's backstory. Not enough quite yet but it will all unfold eventually.**

* * *

"Guess who!" A chipper voice said from behind me as whoever it was placed their hands over my eyes.

"God, I don't know… Simon?" I replied sarcastically and spun around to see Liz in a fit of giggles.

"Welcome back!" She threw her arms around me. "Lunch hasn't been the same without you."

I smiled at her awkwardly and returned her hug. I'd been back at Buffalo high for a total of twelve minutes and had already been the subject on everyone's lips. I wasn't quite sure what they'd have to say other than the gossip about the fight, but that was a week ago.

"What have I missed?" I shoved my hands into my pockets and headed in the direction of my locker. My stomach churned and I grew dizzier with every step I took further into the school and I wanted to turn and leave, but Liz had linked her arm in mine which assured me I wasn't going anywhere except art class.

Liz's smile faltered, but she regained it after a split second. "You know, just typical high school drama." She faked a giggle. It would've been convincing, but her laugh didn't quite reach her eyes and I knew something was up.

"Liz…" I warned. "If something's wrong, I'd rather hear it from you than from-" I gestured to the sea of students around us.

"They're just pathetic high school . You don't need to worry. Come, we'll be late for art!" She picked up her pace.

"Do I need to go up to a stranger and ask what everyone's saying about me? Because I will…" I stepped away from her and she reached out for my hand.

"No!" She rushed. It was the first time I'd ever seen Liz distressed. She ran a hand over her mouth and grabbed my wrist, leading me away from my locker and towards the library. The library was empty save for one librarian, but she still took me to the most secluded table there was.

"It's just talk, okay? Nobody thinks it's serious." She said as we sat down. "Mila's just a big bully-"

"Liz…" I warned again. "Spit it out."

Her face paled for a moment but she gathered herself. "Mila told everybody that you're… uh, sleeping around."

"Oh good, so I'm the Buffalo High Whore now am I? Should I add a trademark to it?" I rolled my eyes. "If Mila wants me to kick her ass again-"

"Chloe." Liz gasped. "You know if you do something like that again you'll get expelled."

"Kidding." I held my hands up in mock surrender. "I can handle Mila. No fighting." I told her as I stood up and slung my backpack over my shoulder. "No fighting. Promise."

Liz seemed to accept my promise and followed me out of the library and we parted ways, with her going to her government class and me heading to English, where I was bound to have to face Mila. I stopped by my locker and unloaded the ridiculous amount of books and homework from my week long suspension and sighed in relief that I wouldn't be carrying them around on my back all day.

I hiked my bag over my shoulder and slammed my locker door closed before heading to English. I saw people point at me as I passed them before turning to their friends and whispering. According to Mila I was sleeping around, so the whole school probably thought I was a slut.

The chatter among students in English class dramatically ceased the second I walked in the room. All eyes were on me as I found my seat and I sat down, pulling my books out of my bag. I didn't dare look up, however I couldn't help but feel eyes burning holes into my back under Mila's intense glare.

Chatter gradually picked up again after the shock of me coming back was over. I heard Derek shuffle into class and sit down beside me at the next desk and take out his books. Mila sat behind me and mock-whispered to her friends about how I was probably slutting it up over my week long suspension.

"So, Chloe, what's your body count?" Her friend tapped me on the shoulder.

"My what?" I turned around, feigning confusion. "How many people I've murdered?"

"Don't bother with them, Chloe." Derek said through grit teeth, low enough that Mila couldn't hear.

"Your body count. How many people have you slept with?"

"Chloe," Derek warned. "Don't start anything."

"I'm assuming Damian's on her list." Mila giggled to her buddy. "Then we've got Mike Broadwick, Simon Bae… which is even more scandalous since that's Damian's brother."

"You'll wanna be careful, Mila," I warned. "This time you might not have any teeth left after I'm done with you."

"Watch it, Saunders."

"Great comeback, ten out of ten." I rolled my eyes and focused my gaze on the front of the classroom where Mr Doyle entered the room and the class lulled to a hush.

After English was my favourite class of the day - lunch. The bell sung out and students sprung to their feet to get their first choice of food in the cafeteria. I took my time arranging my books in a neat fashion on my desk when Mila brushed past me, sticking her hand out to knock the pile onto the floor.

"How creative." I mumbled to myself as I crouched down and collected all the papers that had flown out of one of my folders. Another pair of hands soon joined me.

"You need to watch out for her." Derek rumbled.

I didn't look up as I shoved the now tidied stack of books into my bag.

"I can take care of myself." I stood up and swung my bag over my shoulder before shouldering past him and headed in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Welcome back, Rhonda Rousey." Tori said as I sat down at our usual lunch table.

"Good to be back." I said as I bit into an apple. "So what have I missed?"

"Oh just the usual, Simon hasn't shut up about his comic book idea, Liz is excited over the upcoming drama production, and apparently you're the school whore now."

Liz choked on her apple juice. "Tori!" Liz shreiked, while Simon whipped his head around to look at Tori, his eyes wide as saucers at what his sister had just said.

While Liz and Simon balked at Tori, who had her elbows casually propped up on the table in front of her while she was picking at a blueberry muffin, I burst out into uncontrollable laughter until my sides hurt. The others looked at me as if I had lost the plot, and that made me laugh even harder. Wiping a tear away from my eye, I was finally able to speak. "Yep, that's me."

"Glad you find it funny." Derek said from behind me as he approached with his lunch tray, setting it down next to mine, admittedly a bit too harshly, and sliding onto the bench soon after. "Idiot here," He jabbed a thumb at my direction as he spoke to his siblings and Liz, "just threatened to knock Mila's teeth out in English class. Can't be the school whore if you get expelled for fighting and can't actually attend the school."

"Chloe!" Liz gasped. "You said no more fighting."

I held up my hands in surrender. "Hey, Mila came for me first today."

"Yeah, just like she came for you first last time and you still got suspended." Tori quipped. "Just stay out of her way, she's trouble."

"Yes, _mom_." I said sarcastically as I set my apple down. I'd barely eaten my lunch, only having four bites of an apple and a small red Jell-O, my meatball sub and potato salad remained untouched on my tray. I slid the tray towards the middle of the table and gestured to it. "Help yourself, I'm not feeling well." I said as I stood to get some fresh air and my world spun. Stumbling, Simon leapt up from his seat and rushed to me.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked, concerned, but I waved him off.

"Yeah, just stood up too quick." I pressed my fingers to my temples and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment while I took a second to stabilize myself.

"Maybe you should sit down-"

"No, I need air."

"Okay let me come with-"

Simon finished his sentence, but I couldn't hear him say anything after that. I stepped away from the table, stumbling once more as it felt like the Earth was moving under my feet. Black spots clouded my vision and my world went dark. I was unconscious before I even hit the floor.

* * *

My eyes cracked open and I immediately squeezed them back shut again when bright lights assaulted them. I groaned as I shifted on whatever I was laying on, my joints cracking in protest. It felt like I'd fallen asleep on a mattress made of brick.

"Chloe, honey, you're in the nurses' office. Your aunt Lauren is five minutes away."

"That would explain why I feel like I'm laying on a brick." I mumbled and fidgeted on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position. Snickers from a few feet away had me trying to open my eyes again, but the lights overheard were too bright.

"Thanks for bringing her in, guys. You can go back to your classes now." Nurse Camipa said. I heard the shuffling of feet - I couldn't tell how many pairs - and a door shut, and I knew I was alone. I let out a pained groan and brought my arm up to cover my face, wincing when I applied any pressure to my forehead. "You okay hun?" The nurse asked and I squeaked out a yes.

Minutes felt like hours but eventually aunt Lauren came bursting through the door, calling my name. My head felt like it was pounding and I hissed at her to please be quiet. Nurse Campia took her into another room where they discussed my condition, and not too much longer aunt Lauren signed me out for the day and assisted me into her car where instead of driving to my house, she drove in the opposite direction.

"First day back at school and you've already figured a way to get out of it." She snapped. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her knuckles whiten as she gripped the steering wheel dangerously hard.

I bit my tongue and didn't answer. I hadn't seen aunt Lauren since she brought me home for my suspension. Usually we'd call every other day or text but she made it clear that she was very disappointed in me for my behaviour.

"We need to get you into therapy, Chloe." She muttered.

My head snapped to look at her. "I don't need therapy."

"Clearly you do."

"Aunt Lauren, _I fainted_. This isn't a ploy for attention, this isn't me acting out, or trying to do anything. I was eating lunch, stood up to get some air, and fainted. This isn't something I need therapy for, I need _medical attention_." I told her harshly.

"I don't know what to believe anymore, Chloe. After what happened in Portland I thought you had your issues under control, especially after moving back here, but after you started a fight and got suspended, I have no other choice than to book you into therapy."

"Portland has nothing to do with this." I snapped. "I'm still taking my stupid medication, and I told you a million times that Mila started that fight."

"Portland is where all of this started-"

"No, aunt Lauren. Portland is just where it all came to a head. But you wouldn't know because you were here in Buffalo while I was moving from town to town with dad. You know nothing, just a whole lot of assumptions, since you can't seem to have a civil conversation with dad to find out what was actually happening." I crossed my arms and slumped back in my seat, feeling defeated.

Lauren opened her mouth to speak, but closed it when she realised I probably wasn't going to listen. We eneded up at the hospital where I had the cut on my forehead glued together. Apparently I knocked my head on the corner of the cafeteria table on my way down. Blood was crusted in my hair and I tried my best to rinse it out in the sink after I was given the all clear. No concussion, no major injuries, just a pathetic little cut that I probably could have treated myself.

Soon after we were back in the car, aunt Lauren was adamant that she took me to hers, however I refused and told her that I'd be fine on my own. I was granted the next day off school to recovery and I trudged up the stairs. I hadn't even been back at school long enough to get assigned any homework, so I went straight to playing with the newest film editing software I bought after receiving my first paycheck.

I jumped at my blaring ringtone when Liz began to call me and quickly fumbled for my phone and answered.

"Oh thank God you're still alive!" She exclaimed when I answered.

"I only fainted, jeez."

"Yeah but you can't seem to catch a break lately. Does the nurse know why you fainted?"

"She didn't tell me much, just that I needed to keep my blood sugar up, whatever that means."

"Oh." She stated simply. "But you're okay now?"

"Yeah, aunt Lauren made sure I sucked on a lollipop and I was right as rain. I've been pardoned from school tomorrow though so I think I'll take it off and relax."

"That's probably a good idea…" She trailed off.

"Liz?"

"Mila's spread more rumors about you." She blurted out. "After you fainted."

"Oh great." I sighed. "What now?"

"That you're bulimic. And you fainted because you have an eating disorder."

I screwed my nose up. Out of all the issues I've had over the years, eating disorders had never been on the list. Eating was my life, my passion. I dreamt about food, wrote songs and poetry about it, so no, Mila was wrong. Though after all the extra stress I had been under recently, eating was not high up on my list of priorities. Not that I'd been avoiding it, I'd just forgotten. Which could explain why I fainted.

"Gosh, she's not very creative is she?" I asked sarcastically. "We'll add it to the list, but when I come back on Wednesday, no more fighting. No more arguing. I'm done with her."

"It's for the best, Chloe."

We ended our phone conversation on a lighter note, where Liz explained the upcoming drama production and how she was eager to get the lead role, and how perfect it would be if I were to direct it. It did sound fun, however I'd be applying after barely three months at Buffalo High, where everyone else had been students there long before I had. It just seemed unfair, but I promised Liz I'd apply anyway.

We said farewell, with Liz assuring me she'd drop off my homework tomorrow after school. I told her multiple times she didn't have to but she insisted. We hung up and once again I was left alone in a big, empty house.

* * *

Just as expected, I stepped through the doors on Wednesday to be greeted by countless pairs of curious eyes. I trudged through the sea of students as they whispered, pointed, and even made attempts to stop me as I searched for my locker, keeping my head down and eye contact minimal.

Mila had spread yet another nasty rumour that I had an eating disorder to the entire school after I'd fainted on Monday. Because apparently there was no way I could have fainted for any other reason.

Sticking true to my word, I ignored it. I ignored Mila and her friends in English and gym class, instead focusing my attention on my next assignments. The whispers from all the other students? Water off a duck's back.

The days flew by and before I knew it, I was standing behind the counter at Jay's Vinyl as I watched the hours tick by, willing for someone - anyone - to come and keep me occupied. While the store was quiet, I sat and got a head start on homework if there wasn't any shelving or tidying to do. And let's be real, the store was tiny. There was only so much cleaning that could be done.

I watched the clock tick over to 8:59 and was about ready to spring up and close the store when the door chime dinged, letting me know a customer had entered and I internally screamed before I saw who it was.

Simon Bae strolled up to the counter casually.

"Hey." I greeted.

"Hey yourself. Pretty cool place you've got here." He looked around as his fingers trailed over a shelf.

"Can I help you find something?" I asked.

"Actually, I'm here for you." He finally came to a rest at the counter, propping his elbows up and resting his chin on his hands, looking up at me. "You're nearly done, right?

"Yeah, I just have to bring the front signs in and count the money. Give me two minutes?"

Simon patiently waited outside as I deposited the money and transaction records in Jay's safe. After triple checking everything was locked, I met Simon outside where he was rubbing his hands together to keep warm.

"So, what's with the surprise?" I asked.

"Thought you could use some company on your walk home." He beamed. "Maybe we can detour for a burger."

"You read my mind." I grinned up at him as he placed a hand on the small of my back and guided me towards the diner just a couple doors down.

"So," Simon started as he chewed his burger thoughtfully, "You finish at nine every Friday?"

I nodded.

"Well, I walk through town around this time every Friday. Maybe I could start walking you home? You know, after last week's drama…" He trailed off.

"Simon you don't have to-"

"No, I want to." He interrupted. "After last week, it's better to walk in numbers right?"

I chewed my lip, recounting last Friday's drama, and nodded firmly. There was no way I was going to leave myself in a situation where I could be cornered by Liam Malloy ever again. If I hadn't managed to run away, who know what would have happened?

I shuddered.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks Simon." I smiled at him gratefully and we continued to eat our burgers.

The second we stepped out the diner into the cold air, I shivered and Simon dug through his bag, pulling out his varsity jacket and handed it to me without a word. I thanked him and took it, hugging it close to me to keep out the wind. It smelled like every other high school boy's deoderant, but it was thick and warm, and exactly what I needed.

Instead of repeating my mistake last week and cutting through the park, Simon and I stuck to the brightly lit streets of the city, It was the longer way around, but with company it seemed like the minutes flew by.

"Did I ever tell you the time I nearly failed art class?" Simon piped up as we were discussing Mrs Green's teaching abilities - or lack thereof.

"No, but I feel like this is a story I need to hear. Simon Bae failing art?" I mock gasped. Simon was one of the top art students at Buffalo High, him failing art made no sense.

He grinned. "I went through a phase where I was obsessed with comic books. I mean, I still am, but this was an obsession. Anyways, Mrs Green kept giving us assignments, and I kept doing the assignments in pop art. She'd tell us to use watercolour? Well, I used watercolour paints, but the style was always the same. Same for oil paints, digital art, you name it. She got so frustrated she threatened to fail me but on technicalities, she couldn't. I was still doing the assignments based on her criteria, but they were all in the same style."

I burst out into laughter. "That is some malicious compliance if I've ever heard of it. I can imagine steam billowing out her ears every time she marked your work."

"She hated me." He chuckled. "How about you? Ever failed a class?"

I scrunched my nose up. "Maths. No funny story for it, I just suck at numbers." It was true, I was barely scraping by with my grades. English? Perfect grade. History? Easy. Gym class? Questionable, but overall fine. Art and drama? No worries.

But every time I opened a math textbook, it was like the whole page went blurry and the numbers just melted together in a mess that I didn't understand at all.

"Wish I could help you, but I'm not the math genius here, Derek is. You could totally ask him to tutor you!"

I scoffed a laugh. "Derek can barely stand to be in the same room as me."

"Hey, nothing against you, Derek's just… quiet."

"That's an understatement." I rolled my eyes as we rounded the corner onto my street. "It's like every time he talks to me, he gets snappy with me, like I can't do anything right."

"You learn to live with it." He shrugged.

Don't get me wrong, I was still insanely curious about Derek Souza and what laid under the mop of jet black hair and his brooding demenour. How could his two siblings be so outgoing and likable when he was the center of so many rumors and whispers around school? Of course I doubted that any of those wild accusations held any amount of truth, but how did they begin? Who in their right mind would start a rumour that a teenage bit the head off a live baby bird?

I shuddered again as we came to a stop outside outside my house. "Well, this is me. Thanks for walking me home."

"Don't mention it." He grinned. "We'll do it again next Friday?"

"It's a plan." I smiled up at him.

We hugged eachother farewell and Simon watched as I walked up the path to my front door, not leaving until I was safely inside.

* * *

The library doors swung shut behind me and I sought out my favourite seat in the corner, but of course my luck would have it that the table was already occupied by Derek Souza. I couldn't tell if I wanted to curse under my breath, or celebrate. All I could tell you was that my stomach did a flip as I had flashbacks of bumping into him in his kitchen late at night.

And there was that dry feeling in my mouth again.

"M-mind if I sit here?" I asked.

He looked up and I saw a momentary flash of forest green before his eyes went straight back to his work. "Go ahead." He grunted, his expression unchanging and his voice monotone.

I took my seat and we each worked in silence. As we worked, I tried to take a sneaky look at what he was working on. Lo and behold, nothing made sense to me. It looked like a weird jumble of maths and science and my brain immediately started hurting so I turned my attention back to my own maths homework.

"You look like you're about to snap that pencil in half." He said as he didn't even look up from his page.

I looked down at my hand, white knuckles gripped at the pencil and I quickly released it and flexed my hand as I sat back in my seat. I watched him study, his brow furrowing in concentration as his hair fell into his eyes. Every now and then he'd take a moment to move it out the way, but it never stayed out of his face for long.

After an inappropriate amount of time spent staring, Derek sighed and looked up at me. "What?"

"Do you hate me?" I blurted out.

Smooth.

Derek set his own pencil down and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "What?"

"Do you hate me?" I asked again, except this time much slower.

It was a reasonable question. Derek never went out of his way to talk to me unless it was to chew me out over something stupid, like that fight I had with Mila.

"Why would I hate you?" He brushed away a piece of hair from his face, his green eyes curious.

"Because you chew me out all the time."

"That's because you do stupid things." He stated pointedly.

"Hey I don't-"

"You've broadcasted some weird feud with one of the most powerful girls in the school, got into a _physical_ fight with her that got you suspended. Then on your first day back you threatened to beat her teeth in. Don't even get me started on you walking home alone late at night so Malloy could-"

So Simon must have told him. "I didn't ask to be attacked."

"No, but you put yourself out there. You were too stupid to get a taxi, an Uber-" He stopped himself. "It's like putting a glowing billboard above your head that says you're looking for trouble."

"Forgive me for thinking that women should be free to walk home without being harrassed."

"Yeah well that doesn't stop sick fucks like Malloy from doing what he does best."

I didn't answer.

"Does that answer your question?" The condescending tone made me want to smack him. I looked up at him. His green eyes danced with amusement and his lips twitched into something that was almost a smirk.

He was _enjoying_ this.

He _liked_ telling me that I was an idiot.

"Yeah, and now I also know you're a giant prick." I said as I hastily stuffed my things into my bag and left him alone at the table.

It was my turn to storm out on him, and he didn't say a single peep as I walked away.

Derek and I managed to ignore eachother for the rest of the day, not that it was out of the ordinary or anything. He simply just didn't talk much.

However I did feel his curious gaze burn through me for the entirety of English class.

The last bell of the day rang out while I was in history class and everybody rushed to their feet to leave, me included. A gigantic stack of homework awaited me on my desk at home, and past Chloe thought she'd be okay if she procrastinated and left it to the last minute. And of course, she was wrong.

I all but ran home and unlocked the front door. Music was blaring from the living room and I winced, thinking I'd forgotten to turn it off before leaving for school. That was until I heard shuffling in the kitchen, and smelled lasagne cooking in the oven. A grin spread across my face as I rushed to the kitchen, finding dad sitting at the counter with his Macbook and a glass of wine. I ran towards him and he stood up, catching me in his arms.

"You're early." I mumbled into his jacket.

"Your aunt sent me an email." He replied.

I felt the colour drain from my face and pulled away, where I'm sure he saw my worried expression.

"You're not in any trouble, Chloe. She's worried about you, and I am too."

"I'm okay, dad." I told him.

"I know, honey. But your aunt and I have been talking a bit, and we've both decided that you'd benefit from therapy."

"I don't-"

"-need therapy, I know. Lauren said you'd say that. There are just some things that we might need to get out in the open after our move back. This wasn't easy for either of us, and I want to make sure that my decision hasn't hindered your development."

"It hasn't." I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Just a few sessions. That's all."

There was a look of pleading in dad's eyes that made my stomach sink. This was a man who prioritised his work over everything else, leaving me alone for months at a time. He never admitted it, but I could tell that the distance between me and him helped him forget about Mom. That's why him coming back just to check on me left my stomach in knots.

"Okay." I sighed.

He nodded and sat back on his stool at the counter. "I'll be back here for a month while you go through weekly therapy sessions and we'll see how things go from there."

"Dad I don't need you to shift your life around just because I got into one tiny little fight!" I said as I pulled up the stool next to him and sat on it. "What happened in Portland isn't going to happen again, I promise."

"I trust you, Chlo. If I didn't I wouldn't have left you alone for so long. It's just a month, and if things are progressing well after that then I'll fly back to Berlin to finish off the project."

"Promise?" I asked.

"Promise."

"Now, tell me about this girl you beat up." He grinned.

It was good to have him back.

* * *

"Tell me about Portland, Chloe." The therapist - David - said. His eyes scanned over his clipboard in front of him as he tapped his pen on the desk. He was an elderly man with a neatly trimmed beard, nearing the grey side. Black, thick rimmed glasses framed his icy blue eyes as he studied me carefully.

I didn't want to tell him about Portland.

I didn't want to talk about Portland.

"I don't want to talk about Portland."

He raised a bushy eyebrow quizically. "Is there something bothering you? Every time I refer to your record you clam up."

And suddenly those pale blue walls were just so fascinating to me. My eyes skipped around, settling on the brown oak bookshelf full of helpful materials and a Stanford diploma. It looked like every single other therapists' office that I'd ever stepped foot into.

"If you're not ready to talk about Portland-"

"I'm not."

I _just_ said that.

"Okay, how about we start with your move back to Buffalo, tell me about it."

I shrugged. "I don't even remember where we were before Buffalo. Chicago I think. Dad thought it would be good for me to come back to my hometown. It's closer to my aunt Lauren."

"Born here?"

I nodded.

"How did you find starting over at a new school?"

This time I shrugged. "I've been the new girl at so many different schools now. It's different now that I know this is the last one. I've got friends here."

"And this girl Mila?"

I winced at the name.

"You got into a physical altercation with another student. Has this happened before?"

"Never."

"So what happened with this girl?"

I chewed my lip, thinking carefully about what I was willing to reveal. I didn't want word getting back to dad or aunt Lauren that there were photos of me half naked going around the school. Therapy was humiliation enough.

"She's a bully."

David nodded. "How about we find some coping methods to help you deal with her?" He glanced at his watch. "However that will have to be next week's session as it looks like we've run out of time."

And just like that I was shoved off, a problem to be tended to in next week's session.

"How'd it go, kiddo?" Dad asked as I slid into the passenger seat of his car.

"Great, I'm cured now."

He sighed. "I know therapy wasn't something you were thrilled about, but I'm still proud of you for going."

My lips twitched into a small smile. "Thanks dad."

"Milkshakes on the way home?"

"Only if I can get double whip cream on mine."

"Deal."

Dad had been treating me as if I were a fragile China doll ever since he got back and it felt like an alternate universe. I'd been looking after myself, with the minimal help from nannies, ever since I was twelve. And now dad was offering to chauffeur me around to school, appointments and work? Weird, and slightly annoying.

I tried to cherish whatever freedom I had left. For instance, I allowed him to drive me to school but I drew the line at getting a ride to work. Besides, I needed some form of social life and working on Friday nights and all weekends left that aspect of my high school experience minimal, so with Simon walking me home every Friday with Liz occasionally joining us kept me sane.

Somewhat.

* * *

Another Friday rolled around and it was almost time to close up the store with just a couple of customers browsing throughout. One of the women came up to the counter with an impressive stack of records to checkout and as it was the end of the night and I was feeling generous, I gave her a slight discount since she was buying so much. Once she left with her purchase I was left in the store with another customer, an elderly gentleman, when the bell rang, indicating somebody had walked in. I peered up from over the counter as Simon walked up, donning a black leather jacket atop a white t-shirt and blue jeans. He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and grinned at me in acknowledgment

"Nearly done?" He asked.

"Almost." I quietly gestured to the remaining customer browsing the classical section.

"Want me to tell him it's time to go?"

"Why? Have you got somewhere to be?" I asked quizically.

"Just figured you'd want to get out of here."

I shook my head. "We'll leave him be."

Simon helped me lift a few heavy boxes I hadn't been able to budge all night, and we spent half an hour together in the store labelling items and entering them in the inventory while the customer shopped, finally coming up to the counter with his purchases.

Five minutes later I'd counted the money, brought in the street signs and locked up, and for the second Friday in a row we stopped at the diner to grab some dinner.

"You know, I've never met anybody that's dipped their fries in mayonnaise." I told him with an exaggerated level of disgust in my tone.

"What can I say? I'm a man of culture."

I rolled my eyes.

"Speaking of culture-" I started, only to be interrupted by Simon.

"My dad's Korean and my mom's Swedish. Hence the hair." He flipped a few strands of his blonde hair between his fingers.

"How did you-"

"-Know you were going to ask about my hair?" He chuckled. "You're not that sneaky. I've seen you checking it out for regrowth to see if it's natural."

My cheeks reddened. "Those are some wild accusations there."

"Am I correct?"

"No comment." I sipped my strawberry milkshake. "So it's not bleached?"

"Nope. I did bleach it even lighter once in middle school to impress a girl though."

I sputtered a laugh. "And did that work?"

"Well, she gave me her number and told me she'd save me a dance at the winter dance. She didn't follow through on that promise though, and I'm pretty sure the number was a fake."

"Guess you learned a hard lesson that day."

"Yeah, I probably could have tried harder." He laughed. "How about yours? All natural?"

I ran my fingers through my strawberry blonde waves and peeked at the ends. It was getting long, but the ends were drying out. "All natural. Been thinking of putting some colour in it though. Might make me look older."

"What are you trying to do, get into clubs?"

"Maybe I'll meet some nice college boys." I teased back.

"Trust me, college boys aren't nice." He laughed.

We finished up our burgers and milkshakes, with Simon polishing off the rest of mine when I struggled to eat it all and left the diner, heading in the direction of my house. The weather had been decreasing rapidly and I hugged my denim jacket closer to my body as I shivered.

"Have you thought about getting a car?" He asked. "You're getting all this money for work, and a car would make your life easier. And warmer."

"I'd have to talk to dad about it." I sighed. "I could probably only afford an old cheap one, but dad would want me to get one with all the bells and whistles and safety features. Way out of my price range."

"I dunno, D's car only set him back three grand and it's pretty safe."

"Do you drive?" I asked.

"I can, but I don't have a car." He scratched the back of his neck. "I did, but it uh, got into an altercation. With a tree."

I stared up at him wide-eyed. "You managed to total a car?"

He pursed his lips together and nodded. "It was pretty bad. Nobody was hurt, I had the teeniest little cut on my eyebrow. The worst part was going home afterwards, dad was pretty damn mad, but Derek… whew. I remember walking through that door and the first thing he said to me was, " _I'm glad you're alive so I can kill you_ ," and that was the most terrifying sentence I had the pleasure of having directed at me."

"That's a bit dramatic of him, don't you think?" I scoffed.

"He just cares. I'd be more concerned if he didn't say anything."

"Yeah well if you've managed to crash a car before then there's no hope for me."

"You'll be fine," He reassured. "You're a careful person, there's no way you'd-"

"-Are you forgetting how clumsy I am?"

It was like the Gods - or Satan, depeneding how you looked at it - heard my sentence, because right after I said it, my foot caught on a slight incline of the pavement and I tripped. A hand wrapped around my arm and heaved me back to my feet where I stumbled into Simon. He held me flush against him and I thanked the lack of street lights for hopefully hiding the redenning of my cheeks. I froze in place, looking up at him. His arm had wrapped around my waist, his touch burning through my shirt.

"Maybe I _will_ keep walking you home after work." He smiled down on me, his brown eyes glittering in amusement.

I finally managed to step back, suddenly feeling cold from his absence, and we continued onto my street.

The porch light was on and my dad's silhouette stood at the front door, I assume waiting for me to get home.

"Where have you been? You were supposed to finish work at nine!"

"Street fighting, duh." I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes. "It's okay dad, I went to the diner with Simon." I gestured to my friend next to me.

"Hi Mr Saunders." Simon waved as we approached the front door.

Dad narrowed his eyes at Simon and I was ready to jump in and intervene at any second.

"This is how you get home on Friday nights?" He directed at me.

"Simon waits for me outside work and walks me home, yes."

Dad nodded in approval. "Good. It's better to walk in numbers." He said and turned on his heel, disappearing into the house.

He didn't know how true that was.

I turned to Simon, he looked paler than usual, almost nervous. "Sorry about him."

"It's alright, dad's the same with Tori." He shrugged. "That still didn't stop her from bringing home a twenty four year old, heavily tattooed bass player from some band though."

"He came back from business early because that stupid fight with Mila. Aunt Lauren must have told him it was bad, because they threw me into therapy." I told him as I slumped down on a porch step, and Simon joined, sitting next to me. "My first session was on Wednesday. Dad's never stressed about me like this."

 _Well, with the exception of Portland, but I'd never tell Simon about that._

Simon reclined back against the banister. "Well if you've never gotten into any trouble before and it's just starting now…" He trailed off.

"I never even stayed in a place long enough to get into trouble." I hugged my knees close and rested my chin on top. "I think he's regretting bringing me back here."

"But he's not going to make you pack up and move, right?"

"I don't think so." I shook my head. "He made a promise, and I've finally made friends here. He'd have to drag me kicking and screaming."

He slung his arm around my shoulders, "that's my girl!" he laughed. I laughed along with him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"I'm glad I finally found a place to graduate."

"With such an awesome group of people too." He laughed.

We sat on the porch and talked for another two hours before the lights inside went off, meaning dad was going to bed, and I looked at my watch. "Jeez, almost midnight!" I exclaimed. "I gotta go."

"Okay, Cinderella." He teased.

"Hey! I've got homework to do and a shift tomorrow morning, can you blame me?"

"Suppose not." He stood up and extended an arm out to me. I took his hand and he helped me up to my feet. "Again next week?" He asked.

"Absolutely." I smiled. "Goodnight, Simon."

"'Night, Chloe."

He watched as I turned around and let myself inside, not leaving until I'd closed and locked the door.

* * *

 **There it is. Any clues or ideas as to what might have happened to Chloe in Portland? Leave a review with your theories! And I'd love to know what you guys are thinking about the story :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Isolation has me bored. Unfortunately I've lost my job so I have plenty of time for editing and I can finally publish the rest of this story (I have heaps done, I've just been lazy). Hope everyone's staying safe and well during this time 3**

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As I woke on Saturday morning and peered out my curtains, I saw it raining buckets outside and wanted nothing more than to bury my face back in my pillow and sleep the day away, however work called and I peeled myself out of bed and shuffled into my ensuite bathroom. I shivered as I stripped down and turned the hot water up to full heat and stepped underneath it. Wrapping my hair up in a towel afterwards, I plucked out my black, ripped skinny jeans from my cupboard and an orange sweater. I looked at my tangled mess of hair and hoped that it would dry quickly on its own, because I had no time for anything else.

To my father's pleasure, I accepted a ride to work since the rain ruined my plans to walk.

"So, dad, I've been thinking-"

"Dangerous, but go on." He said as he indicated left and turned the corner.

I playfully smacked his arm. "When you're gone, and it's too cold or hot to walk, I think I might need a car."

"Say no more, I'll pull up my finances while you're at work today and-"

"I want to buy it myself." I interrupted. "I-It's just a b-big purchase and I couldn't accept-"

"Do you have enough money?" He asked.

"W-w-well, not quite yet. Maybe another couple of paychecks and I could get something…" I trailed off, knowing there was no way I could dig myself out of the I'm about to buy an old rickety car that probably has zero safety features hole.

He turned to look at me and cocked an eyebrow. "You're not driving a beat up Honda Civic from the nineties with zero airbags."

"But dad, I need a car and-"

"And I'm offering to buy you a newer one. One that will keep you safe." He sighed. "Tell you what, you save up the next two months of paychecks you get, and I'll match you on it so that I know you're getting into something that meets my standards."

I knew that the talk about cars would bring up thoughts of mom, so I couldn't blame him. He was devastated the night of their car accident and he didn't want to lose me too in the event something were to happen.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." I finally agreed. "Thanks, dad."

He dropped me off directly outside the store, but I still got drenched in rain in the two minutes I spent waddling to unlock it. Water had seeped through the holes of my Converse shoes and they squelched with every step, making me cringe. The first thing I did once inside, after disarming the alarm, was take my shoes off.

Winds picked up outside, deterring customers from venturing out of their homes and doing their shopping. Two hours before I had to close, the door swung open and in walked a familiar blonde that I'd been dying to catch up with.

"Oh my gosh, Chloe this is where you work? This is so cool!" She exclaimed as she peered around the store. "Have you got any Five Seconds of Summer?" I pointed her to the top 40 wall and she squealed with joy, flicking through albums.

"I didn't know you had a record player." I mused.

"I don't. But I'm planning on it."

I smiled and shook my head at her. Liz stayed for the rest of my shift, with only three customers coming to browse throughout.

"Hey, so Tori's dad had to pack up and leave for business this morning and she wants to throw a party, you in?" Asked excitedly.

I hesitated for a second. "I don't know, my dad's keeping a close eye on me ever since the whole Mila thing. If he knew I was going to a party-"

"Just tell him you're sleeping at mine!"

"L-lie to him?" I stuttered.

"Gosh, Chloe come on, you're young, come out and have some fun!" When I looked at her skeptically, she added, "If you get in trouble, you can blame me."

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Fine, I give in."

"Eeeee! Okay, meet me at mine at six, bring your overnight bag to make it look convincing to your dad."

She skipped out the store and I was left grinning and shaking my head.

Dad picked me up at 4 o'clock, rolling up right as I was locking the door behind me. I quickly rushed to the car as to not get rained on too much and dove into the front seat.

"How was it, kiddo?"

"It was good, Liz came in. Can I stay at hers tonight?" I asked as I buckled my seat-belt.

"Will it just be you girls?" He asked quizzically and I nodded. "I suppose that's okay, as long as you aren't too tired for work tomorrow."

"Thanks dad." I smiled. He grinned down at me and a pang in my gut had me feeling guilty for lying to him, but was quickly replaced by feelings of excitement and wonder as to how the night was going to play out.

I stuffed my overnight bag with a pillow and a few spare clothes, just in case. Dad waited at the bottom of the stairs for me, keys in his hand and ready to go. He carried my bag to the car and flung it into the trunk before heading around to the driver's seat. In ten minutes, we'd stopped outside a familiar white picket fence.

"Thanks dad." I said as I unbuckled my seat-belt.

"Remember, no parties, no boys, no drinking and no drugs." He told me sternly.

"Okay, dad."

He seemed to contemplate for a moment, resting his chin on his closed fist. "I should come in and meet Liz's parents. You are staying overnight after all." He unbuckled his seat-belt too.

"N-no, that's not necessary dad. I'm n-n-nearly seventeen!"

"I just want to make sure you're in good hands." He hopped out the car before I could protest further and I watched my plans for the night ahead crumbling. I could see it now, he'd force me back into the car, lock me in my room and I'd only be allowed out for daily therapy sessions if he found out I was trying to go to a party.

I begged him not to as we crossed the picket fence and approached the white brick house where he rapped his knuckles on the baby blue front door. Shuffling sounded on the other side before it opened moments later and Liz's grandmother looked up at dad with a bright smile as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.

"Hello, I'm Steven, is Liz's parents around? I'm dropping Chloe off for a sleepover."

"Oh dear no, I'm her legal guardian." She outstretched her hand. "The name's Pam."

Dad shook her hand, an embarrassed expression painted on his face. "Well I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page. Chloe told me that Liz invited her for a slumber party tonight and I thought I should meet the guardians of the house."

"Yes, of course. Wise idea. Would you like to come in for tea?"

Dad glanced down at me and noticed my pleading expression.

"No, I'd better get going. Just making sure Chloe doesn't get into any trouble." He joked as he ruffled my hair, but I knew there was a sliver of truth to it and I adjusted my bag over my shoulder uncomfortably. "She has work tomorrow morning, I'll be back to pick her up at ten."

"There won't be any trouble here." She assured. "I've made the girls dinner, it should be ready any minute now." She ushered for me to come in.

"Thanks dad, bye!" I called behind my shoulder.

"Bye Chlo." He waved as Liz's grandma closed the door behind us.

I heard dad's footsteps retreat before disappearing into the car. The engine roared to life and I listened as he drove off.

"I'll tell you a secret," Pam began, "I didn't make dinner, is pizza okay?" She winked and I gave her a hearty laugh.

Yes, yes it was.

"Okay, show me what you're wearing to the party!" Liz plopped down on her bed with a plate of pizza. She picked off an olive and popped it into her mouth, making a face. "Yuck, salty."

"Have you never had an olive before?" I raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"Many times, I just forget how salty they are." She responded as she picked the rest of the olives off her slice and putting them on my plate instead. "Now show."

I looked down at myself and held my arms out, turning around. There was no party dress, sparkly heels or jewellery, just me in my typical black ripped jeans, blue denim jacket and a white t-shirt with my red Converse sneakers.

"Come on Chloe, you didn't bring a dress?" She asked incredulously.

"Well, no." I chewed my lip. "Isn't it going to be cold?"

"Well duh, but it'll be hot after a few drinks and some dancing." She hopped up from her bed and strode over to her closet where she looked to be contemplating for a moment. Eventually she came back out with six coat-hangers full of dresses. "Some of these might fit you. Try them on!"

"Liz I don't think-"

"Humor me, please! I'll turn around, you try on this." She handed me a tight looking purple dress with spaghetti straps. Now that my boobs were finally coming in, I did not trust this dress to keep me covered - it looked like a nip slip waiting to happen. As Liz sat with her back towards me I wiggled the dress on and over my hips.

"This isn't going to cover my butt, but you can turn around." I sighed.

She eyed me up and down. "Maybe if we put your hair up-"

"There is no way I am leaving the house in this." I wandered over to the stack of dresses she had picked out. Among them was the sparkly gold dress that she wore to the previous party, a flowing red dress with a plunging neckline, a white lacy dress that looked like it would hug every lump and bump on my body in the most inappropriate ways and a hot pink maxi dressed that reached the floor. The last one, on the very bottom of the pile was the only one that caught my eye. A plain black skater dress with sleeves that ended just under the elbow. The bodice looked form fitting but the skirt flowed out freely. "I can work with this." I negotiated.

"Try it on! I'll go find some shoes."

"Nuh uh," I held a hand out to stop her, "I'll wear the dress on the condition that I can wear it with my Converse and my jacket."

She sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "Guess you can't teach fashion nowadays."

I tried on the dress and it did fit well, but there was a bit of tightness around my chest that made it look way bigger than it actually was, but at least I'd fit in at the party a bit better instead of looking like a child. It didn't look half bad with the red sneakers and the denim jacket. Liz did my make-up, just like last time, but we decided to leave my hair with its natural waves cascading halfway down my back.

When we were both ready I turned to Liz. "So, are we sneaking out your window?"

She giggled. "No way, let's go." She took my hand a lead me down the stairs, through the living room where her grandma sat watching some game show. "Bye nan, we're going to the party."

"I told Steve I'd look after Chloe and make sure she didn't get into trouble so I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Oh and girls? If you're going to take drugs, at least know who you're getting them from."

Liz giggled. "Love you nan!"

We hopped into Liz's car where she cranked the heat up. "Nan was a wild card back in her day. She knows we're going to party anyway so she wants us to do it safely."

"Have you ever uh… done that?"

"What? Drugs?" She asked and I nodded. "It's not my thing, Tori dabbles and once I took a hit of a joint. It was gross and I didn't feel anything so I'm not really counting it. Alcohol is more my pace y'know?"

I nodded.

She drove us a few minutes away to Tori's party. It was nearing nine o'clock and there were already crowds of people from school stumbling around outside, enjoying their nights. One girl Liz recognized from her cheer squad was doubled over in a bush, undoubtedly emptying her stomach while one of her friends held her hair back, away from her face.

Liz parked her car and we went inside with Liz dragging me by the hand. Just like last time, the house was dark and filled with sweaty teenagers and hazy, smoky air. Tori sat on the couch with a boy from the football team and Liz and I sat down with them, with the other three submerging themselves in conversation while I sat awkwardly and looked around, watching everybody else.

"Glad you came." An arm draped around my shoulders and Simon handed both Liz and I a red solo cup each. I thanked him and took a small sip, recoiling when I tasted it but swallowed nonetheless. I made a mental note to mix my own drinks in the future.

"Glad I'm here." I smiled up at him.

"You'll never guess who's been asking for you." He slurred his words as he spoke and took another sip. "Mike Broadwick wants to play beer pong with you again."

"I'm surprised he'd want me back there. I was a pretty poor shot after all."

"I don't believe that." He tipped his head back and chased down his drink. "How about you and I start a game up?"

"Are you sure you've got the coordination? Wouldn't want to embarrass you." I giggled.

"Let's go!" He exclaimed in drunken glee and made a grab for my hand, hauling me to my feet. I followed him into the kitchen where he cleared off a table and arranged ten solo cups on each side in the shape of a triangle. "Beer, vodka or cider for the lady?"

I hesitated. I didn't want any of those options. "Cider I suppose."

He cracked open a bottle of apple cider and distributed it over the solo cups. "You know Chloe, they should make strawberry cider."

"Hmm?"

"Yeah, you seem to really like strawberries."

I giggled. "Maybe one day, Simon. Hey, you sure you're okay to play?"

"Pssh, yeah of course, the party's just getting started right? Now ladies first." He handed me a bright orange ping pong ball. I lined up a shot and threw the ball through the air. It bounced on the table once and landed in one of Simon's cups. He cheered in what seemed like victory until he realized he had to drink what was in it. I took a second shot, again hitting my goal. "What the hell, Chloe?!" He threw his hands up in the air before grabbing the cup and removing the ping pong ball, tipping it back and drinking all of it. My third try wasn't so lucky and it was his turn.

"Heya Chloe, good to see you're practicing!" Mike Broadwick clamped a hand down on my shoulder and Simon straightened up seeing this interaction. I smiled up at Mike, about to say hello when out the corner of my eye I saw the ball fly into one of my cups and I groaned. I took the cup in my hands and gave Simon a look before drinking. The apple cider actually wasn't so unpleasant, unlike the vodka. It was quite sweet. Perhaps cider was more my drink of choice.

Simon tried for another shot but missed and I took the ball in my possession once again. We continued going back and forward until a winner was declared, and unfortunately for me it was Simon, however it was still a close game and he was way drunker than I was.

"How about a game up against me?" Mike asked as he moved some of the cups around to re-form the triangles.

"You're on." I challenged.

Another close game, except this time I was the winner. I watched Mike chug the last cup down and everybody around us clapped and cheered as he pumped his fists in the air triumphantly, even though he lost. He came around the other side of the table and shook my hand, bowing down to me, when a voice broke through the crowd.

"She can't even pass gym class, how did that loser even win a game of beer pong?" Mila Andrews scoffed as she flipped her perfectly straightened auburn hair over her shoulder. Three of her friends stood by her as they gazed around the room in disgust, being careful not to tough anything.

"Who invited you?" Tori appeared over my shoulder, a look of disgust played on her lips.

"You don't need to worry about who invited me. Word got out, and I thought I'd come see what all the fuss is about. It looks like little Chloe Saunders is having oh so much fun over there with my man." She gestured to Mike.

"Hey, we are not together."

"Shut it, Mike." She snapped. "Regardless, he's not going to want to be your little beer pong buddy much longer. I've found out Chloe's little secret."

"M-m-my s-s-"

"C-c-can you talk like a normal person?" She mocked. "Yes, your secret. A little birdie told me about what happened last year at one of your old schools."

All of the sudden it was like everything had stopped. The only sound in the background was the thumping music, but not even that was loud enough to drown out Mila's voice. Everybody in the crowd had grown silent, waiting to see if Mila would reveal my deepest, darkest secret. Blood thumped in my ears, my cheeks flushed as she stared me down with those cruel, icy blue eyes.

"Don't you think your friends should know, Chloe?" She cocked her head, feigning innocence.

I broke eye contact with her and turned my back, heading out the back door into the yard. It was freezing. I chugged the rest of my drink and slumped down on the outdoor couch where I proceeded to ruin all the hard work Liz had put into my makeup by crying. I wiped at my eyes, black mascara coating the back of my hand with each wipe.

How did Mila find out?

Did everybody at the party know now?

How would I explain to my friends what happened in Portland?

Would I even have any friends by the end of this?

The screen door slammed shut behind me and my gaze met with a furious looking Tori Enright. She paced up and down the porch for five minutes before stopping next to me and sitting down heavily.

"I'm guessing everyone knows everything by now." I croaked out, defeated.

"Nobody knows anything." Tori said through grit teeth. "She didn't get a chance."

"What-"

"-Let's just say Mila and I used to be besties. I have a whole lot of dirt on that bitch that she would never want me to reveal, and I finally got to use it against her."

"Tori I-"

"You're welcome." She said with enough venom in her voice to scare me. Our eyes met and her expression softened. "I'm not mad at you, Chloe, Christ. That bitch just has some balls walking into my home uninvited. I've never quite literally thrown somebody out by their collar before."

"So… nobody knows."

"Nobody knows." She confirmed. "I don't know what deep, dark secrets you're hiding, Saunders, but we all have them, and they shouldn't come out until you're ready." With that, she leapt to her feet. "I've got some make-up wipes in the bathroom, second drawer down if you need them." She said before disappearing back into the house.

I took a deep, shaky breath. It was cold enough I could see my own breath dancing in the air.

The sliding door opened and shut behind me once again. Turning around, Mike approached cautiously. "I come in peace, I swear." He held out a bottle of water and I took it, nodding a thanks. "I just want you to know, Mila and I aren't a thing anymore. She wants us to be, but I ended it last week." He sighed. "She sees anybody who challenges her as a threat, and ever since you put her in her place on your first week, she's been out for blood."

"I should've just kept my mouth shut." I mumbled.

"No, you stood up for yourself. That's a good thing. Now she's seeing she can't get away with treating everybody like crap, and she's losing her power. Ever since you did that, people have finally had the courage to stand up and tell her enough's enough. Nobody did that before." He swept a lock of dirty blonde hair away from his face and shrugged. "For what it's worth, I think it's pretty cool."

I smiled up at him. "Thanks, Mike."

With a combination of what Mike and Tori had told me, I already felt better. The shock of Mila finding out about what happened last year sobered me up quick smart, but with Tori having my back and Mike's reassuring words, It felt like I could take on the world.

"Whelp, I'm heading back in. Catch up later for another game?"

"You bet." I smiled.

I watched the door slide open once again, this time Simon came out and exchanged glances with Mike and rolled his eyes.

"I can't believe you talk to that guy." Simon huffed once Mike had disappeared inside. He sat down next to me. "He's such a tool."

"Hey, he's really sweet to me." I protested.

He sighed. "You okay?"

"I am now." I nodded. "Tori said she took care of Mila."

"Threw her out on her ass. I don't think Mila will be bothering you anymore now that she knows Tori's on your side."

"Cheers to that." I held up my bottle of water and fake clinked it with Simon's beer. We each drank and I leaned my head on Simon's shoulder, sighing. "I didn't think this is what my high school life would be like."

"What did you expect, something like a movie?"

I scrunched up my nose. "Not quite. I was hoping for less drama."

"Pssh, you go to an arts school, there's drama everywhere you turn."

Simon and I stayed outside for another ten minutes until neither of us could handle the cold anymore. We headed back inside and once the door was firmly closed, a roar of cheer exploded. I turned around to see a bunch of partygoers approaching me, slapping me on the back.

"Glad you came back in!" One girl said and I blushed in embarrassment.

Liz tackled me in a hug before standing back and looking at me. "We need to get you cleaned up." She took my hand and lead me to the bathroom where she helped me remove all my makeup. I declined her offer to apply more, preferring to go naked-faced.

"You know," she started as she used a makeup wipe around my eyes, "whatever secret Mila thinks she has over you, I'm always here for you. You don't even need to tell me what it is, it's none of my business." She threw the wipe in the bin and stood back, nodding approvingly at her work. "I'm only ever a phone call away."

"Thanks, Liz."

We went back downstairs and resumed the party. Liz, Simon and I danced in the living room all the while trying not to spill our drinks. Tori joined in on the fun but eventually left us for one of the boys on the football team. I glanced over to the corner of the room where she lit up a joint and placed it to her lips, drawing in. She puffed out a white cloud of smoke before passing it on to the next person.

"Did you want to try?" Liz asked.

I contemplated for a moment, but eventually shook my head. "I'll stick with this." I raised my nearly empty cup and turned around afterwards to head into the kitchen. The table was surrounded by nine other people playing a kind of drinking game that I couldn't name. I picked up another apple cider and poured it into my solo cup.

"You should try some of this in it." Simon came up behind me and reached around, pouring a golden liquid into my cup. I looked up at him quizzically. "It's Fireball. Cinnamon whisky. Try it!"

I held eye contact with him as I took a skeptical sip. Cinnamon and apple. It wasn't too bad, actually. Kind of like an apple pie. "That's really good." I told him as I stared into the cup before taking another sip.

"Woah, steady there Chlo. It's booze on booze, you'll be wasted in no time."

I peered up at him over the cup and shrugged as I drank more. "Liz told me to have fun tonight, that's what I'm doing." I said as I danced around him before heading back to Liz.

The rest of the night was a dizzy blur of dancing, drinking, and games. Admittedly I drank way too much, and too fast for my body to keep up. The last thing I remember was stumbling up the stairs and into Simon's guest room where I shed my jacket and kicked off my shoes before crawling under the covers. They felt heavier than last time, but with the cold air it was a welcome warmth. My eyelids dropped as I tapped away on my phone, and before I knew it I'd been pulled under by sleep.

It didn't last long when the creak of a door echoed through the room as loud as a gunshot. Light from the coridoor peeked into the room and the silhouette of a body blocked most of it.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?"

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 **I like this chapter, but I LOVE the next one. Tell me if you want to read it ;)**


	9. Chapter 9

**This one's a little shorter, but hopefully equally as satisfying for your Chlerek needs.**

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My eyes were assaulted as whoever was in the doorway hit the light switch. I recoiled, covering my eyes dramatically with my forearm and letting out a groan.

"Get out." I yelled as I blindly felt around for a pillow. When I finally found one, I tossed it at the enemy.

"I should be telling you the same thing. You are in my room after all."

I shot up in bed and looked around, the sudden realization sobering me. A desk propped up in the corner was full of college level textbooks, and the shelves were full of sporting trophies. There was a pile of laundry in the opposite corner, telling me that this was somebody's bedroom, and not a guest room. I finally looked down to see my body covered by a thick, navy blue blanket. Seconds later my eyes connected with the person at the door.

Derek.

"D-D-Derek I-"

He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms.

"This isn't the guest room?" I asked, bewildered.

"No, Chloe. This isn't the guest room." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Ughhhhhh." I groaned dramatically. "I gotta get to the guest room." I said as I threw the blanket off me and swung my legs out of Derek's bed, feeling the chill and I shivered.

"There's no use in that. It's already taken." He sighed and bent down to pick up the pillow I threw at him. He then moved over to the foot of the bed and collected another blanket from a linen chest and gathered it in his arms. "There's a couch in the basement."

"The basement. I'll go to the basement." I said as I stood up. Blood rushed to my head and I stumbled forward and held out my hands to brace my fall, but Derek caught my arm at exactly the right time and steadied me, only letting his hand drop once he was satisfied I wasn't going to fall and break my face on his floor.

"No, I'll go to the basement. You stay here." He ordered.

"But your room-"

"I don't trust you to get down to the basement without falling down the stairs." He grumbled.

"No, I-"

"Just stay in the bed, Chloe." He snapped and gently placed his hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down onto his bed. He gathered a change of clothing from his closet and headed back towards the door. He watched as I laid back down in his bed and got settled.

"And Chloe?"

"Mmm?"

"If you're going to vomit, please don't vomit in my room."

"Promise."

* * *

My eyes fluttered open at the rising sun peeking through the curtains of Derek's bedroom. I rolled over to face away from the light and snuggled further into the bed. His blankets smelled of cinnamon and were warm and comforting, making the thought of sleep even more alluring.

The sun continued to rise and with it came enough light in the room to wake me up completely. My head thumped and my stomach churned. Next to me on the nightstand sat a full bottle of water and two advil on top a piece of paper.

 _Take these when you wake up._

I smiled down at the gesture and swallowed the advil, chasing it down with the water. Swinging my legs out of bed, I shivered as my bare toes touched the floor and reached back for the blanket, draping it over my shoulders while I gathered my jacket and my shoes. As I bent to grab my jacket from the floor, a familiar feeling churned in my stomach and my mouth began to water. The previous night was foggy in my brain, but I explicitly remember promising Derek that I would absolutely not vomit in his bedroom. I bolted out into the hallway and breathed a sigh of relief seeing the bathroom door open and vacant. Slamming the door behind me, I hunched over the toilet where I let loose. A mix of cinnamon whiskey, apple cider, vodka and stomach acid burned at my throat as I emtied my stomach. Tears streamed down my face as my body heaved.

Once I was sure there was nothing left threatening to come up I rinsed my mouth out in the sink and wiped at my eyes. Looking up in the mirror, I realised how absolutely wrecked I looked. Bloodshot eyes, tangled hair, and remnats of smudged eyeliner over half my face. I was a mess.

I swung the door open and my luck would have it that Derek stood on the other side. He looked down at me. Amusement played on his face and I wasn't having a bar of it.

"You look-"

"Don't even start at me." I snapped and held up my hand to stop him and walked straight past, back into his bedroom where I picked up my phone, shoes and jacket.

"You're welcome for the advil, by the way." He crossed his arms as he leaned against the door. His grey sweatpants hung low on his hips and his black t-shirt clung to him a little too tight. I tore my gaze away and fixed my attention on slipping on my shoes.

"Thank you." I mumbled.

I listened to his footsteps retreat and slumped back on the bed one last time before finally getting up and making my way downstairs. I sat on the couch until everybody else woke, which wasn't much longer. Simon descended the stairs, as chipper as always. Liz came down shortly after with Tori and they shared a joke, laughing together.

Tori stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. "Woah, I was going to say I'm glad you're alive but you look like a corpse."

"Thanks, Tori." I mumbled sarcastically as I nursed my water.

I looked at the clock - dad was supposed to pick me up from Liz's for work in half an hour and I was not ready at all. Liz removed most of my make up last night after my run in with Mila but I still had the remains of black, streaky eyeliner surrounding my eyes. My hair was knotted, to the point where I couldn't even run my fingers through it, and I reeked of alcohol.

I slumped over the counter, touching my forehead to the cool marble when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked at the name and let it ring a few more times while I composed myself.

"Hi Jay, what's up?" I asked my boss.

"Chloe, have you left for work yet?"

I took a moment to check the time, it was only eight thirty and I didn't start work until ten o'clock. "No I haven't. Do you need me in early?"

"No, stay where you are." He sighed. "Power's gone out at the store, looks like it won't be back for a few more hours so take the day off."

"Thanks, Jay."

I set down the phone and resumed my position, slumped over the counter, and let out a groan. Blindly, I dialled my father's number and let him know my shift had been cancelled, so he didn't have to pick me up from Liz's so early. He agreed to collect me later on in the afternoon and I sighed in relief, knowing he wasn't going to see me like this.

"Damn that's lucky." Simon quipped. "Chloe, you wanna come to the diner with us?" He gestured to Tori, Liz and another boy, Brady, who I assumed was the one who had occupied the guest room last night. "Some greasy bacon and eggs might do you good."

I mock dry heaved at him and he chuckled, accepting my answer. "Okay, you okay to stay here?" He asked, and I gave him a thumbs up in response. "D will be around if you need anything."

Just great.

I made myself comfortable in the living room by drawing the blinds and hiding under a mountain of blankets while I flicked through the channels on the television. Rain started to pour outside, pelting down on the roof. A flash of lightning lit up the whole house and I jumped at the sight of a human silhouette in the doorway.

"Put these on." Derek barked. An armful of material fell in my lap and I sorted through them - a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie.

"C-clothes?"

"Yes, clothes." He repeated me slowly, as if I was an idiot. "Every time I pass the living room I see you shivering like you're buried under six feet of snow. I'm not dealing with a hungover and sick guest overstaying their welcome." He turned on his heel and disappeared up the stairs.

"Asshole." I muttered under my breath.

"I heard that."

I didn't argue it further and hurried myself into the bathroom where I slipped off my dress and replaced it with the more comfortable loungewear. After returning to the couch, I spent the next four hours flicking through channels and never came to a decision on what I actually wanted to watch. The Bae family's DVD collection was minimal, all movies I'd seen before. So my options were Keeping up with the Kardashians for my quick fix of reality trashy drama, or Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares for just some regular reality drama. I couldn't decide so I watched both.

I went between watching TV, dozing off, and scrolling through my social media feeds when a commotion in the kitchen startled me and left me curious. I threw the blankets off me and moved over to the doorway where Derek was crouched in front of the fridge, picking up a punnet of strawberries he'd dropped on the floor. He gathered them together and stuffed them back into the little plastic container.

"Can I help you?" He asked without so much as looking up at me.

"N-no." I walked over to the kitchen counter. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard, I filled it with water and stood back, sipping it slowly as I watched him.

He took the fruit and held it under the tap to wash them and shoved them back in the fridge, now pulling out lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise and some kind of deli meat. My stomach growled as I watched him slap a sandwich together and cut it in half. He paused for a moment and sighed. Without so much as any eye contact, he pushed the plate towards me and pulled out another two slices of bread, preparing another one.

"I'm only doing this because I pity you." He mumbled.

"T-thanks." I said as I picked up a half and took a bite. "Simon t-t-told me you didn't normally attend his p-parties."

He squished the top slice of bread down and cut his sandwich. "Not usually." He shrugged.

"Where do you go?"

"Out." He took a bite of his own sandwich. "So you knew I wasn't usually home when Simon and Tori threw their parties. Is that why you thought it'd be okay to take my bed?"

I stopped chewing mid bite and swallowed, putting down my sandwich. "N-no, of course not!" I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I honestly thought I was in the guest room." My cheeks heated, flushing a brighter red than I ever thought existed.

"If you say so." He grunted, sounding skeptical. "Just don't make a habit out of it."

"I'm not planning on it. I'm never drinking again."

He smirked and took his plate before disappearing up the stairs. Simon, Liz and Tori came back an hour later without Brady, who had somewhere else to be. Liz drove us back to her place where I showered, brushed my teeth and drank my daily intake of water in half an hour, just trying to feel better about my decisions from the previous night.

"Ugh, is it always like this?" I said as I flopped down next to her on the bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.

She giggled. "You're not a seasoned drinker, you just don't know your limits yet. Next time you'll know how to pace yourself better."

"I don't know if I want there to be a next time." I sighed and looked over on her night stand. A framed picture of Liz and an older woman sat perched underneath her lamp and I picked it up. "Your mom?" I asked as I studied it. The older woman sat on a park bench in a powder blue tank top and white shorts with Liz on her lap in some floral pink overalls. They both had striking blue eyes and flowing golden hair.

"Yup, that's her." She smiled. "That was my favourite park as a child. We should go there one day, there's a really sweet campground."

"Your mom, is she…"

"Dead?" Liz cut in. "No, I can see why you'd ask that though since I live with nan."

I nodded and Liz continued.

"Mom has her struggles. Sometimes she'll be here with me and nan, but when she relapses again she gets put into an inpatient program for those struggling with addiction." She hugged her knees to her chest. The way Liz spoke about it, made me think that it happened frequently. "Right now she's in the program, but she's doing really well this time."

"I'm glad to hear that." I paused. "Not to hear that she's in the program but-"

"-but that she's doing well, I know Chloe. I'm glad too." She smiled and reclined back with me. "Are you missing your mom?"

"Every single day." I blinked back tears that threatened to spill and sighed. "I can't help but wonder how different things would be if she was still around." Looking down at my hands, I wasn't sure if I envied Liz or pitied her. A pang of envy hit me in the stomach that her mom was still around, that there was hope of them having a functioning relationship. And then there was pity. Pity that her mom was still alive, but that she was unwell. "I'd better call dad to pick me up. Don't want to overstay my welcome."

After packing my bags and calling dad to come get me, Liz followed me down stairs and we waited in the living room. She trapped me in a hug, her blonde hair spilling over her shoulders and tickling my nose. "Feel free to drop in any time."

I heard dad's Audi pull up in the driveway and I hurried out to throw my bags in the trunk. Once I was settled in the passenger seat and buckled up, dad struck up a conversation. "You look like you've been to hell and back. Too many rom coms and not enough sleep last night?"

If that was the story he wanted to believe, it was the story I was gonna roll with. "Yeah, we even braided each others hair."

"But no nail polish? Isn't that what teenage girls do at sleepovers?" He mocked as he reversed out onto the road.

"No, we swapped that out and decided to summon the dead instead."

"Ah, and I suppose you snuck out to perform a Satanic ritual in the woods too."

"You know us too well." I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn't help but crack a smile. "Bet you aunt Lauren wouldn't put it past us."

"Yeah well aunt Lauren is boring. Have you heard from her?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I think it's gonna take her a while to come around."

"She just hates to think her baby niece is growing up. You're staying on your own, in a new school where you'll graduate. You've got a job and you're working towards a car now. And you seem to be able to hold your own in a fight. Your mom would be proud."

"I hope so." I sighed. I wasn't so sure he'd be saying that if he knew about last night's antics. But I'd never tell him that.

* * *

 **Tell me what you think! Hope you're all staying safe and healthy during this time :)**


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